Carbon Emissions

Businesses, the media, trade associations and intermediaries representing businesses have all been moaning (justifiably most would agree) about the increasing power of the Big Six energy companies. In practice, against the background of fairly arduous economic situation for all, suppliers have been ‘digging in their heels’ and now their strategic positioning; it’s no longer about acquiring new customers, rather squeezing increasing margins out of the ones that they already have and of course dumping customers where the required margins are missing.

SEE MORE ABOUT OFGEM

Looks like some good news to come out of The Queen’s Presentation to the Nation. Further to some of our comments last month (see Pirates & Energy Companies) about legislation appearing on the horizon, sailing to the rescue of not only Consumers but Business as well, looks like there will be real regulations in place. Not only that, finally, maybe OFGEM will get some teeth. The general contempt with which much of the supplier base treats businesses may be about to change.

FIND OUT MORE….

Energy Benchmarking is the latest buzzword in the world of energy management, carbon emissions and conservation. We are finding that increasing numbers of new and existing clients are questioning how and where they can save energy. This is where the Carbon Trust can assist. The Carbon Trust was set up by the UK Government in 2001 and is an independant company created to “accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.”

It might be worth spending some time using their Benchmarking Tool For Office Buildings – here you can make an assessment of how much energy you use in your office spaces and compare this with benchmarks produced for 4 different office types as part of the very detailed ECON 19 publication. This enables the user to flag up any potential need for change and improvement in efficient use of energy.

Despite the current global economic predicament, the UK government are pushing forward with their ambitious targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases. The latest addition to the climate change policy in the UK will be the introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), due to be introduced in 2010. All large users of electricity, (ones with an electricity bill of approximately £500,000 for the period January 1st 2008 – December 31st 2008) are CRC organisations and will eventually be required to take part in a cap and trade scheme, buying allowances to cover their emissions.  Where those who do well will be rewarded with bonus payments and those who do badly will suffer financial penalties.

continue