Maybe it’s not all ‘Hot Air’ after all. The new coalition Government have now acknowledged the real value in supporting green energy production in the form of £60 million wind energy investment. Clarity of understanding is moving the government away from the required budget cutbacks from missing a real economic (albeit long-term) investment in the sustainability and security of UK energy supply.

The outlay will support the offshore wind infrastructure at port sites, to help meet the increasing needs of manufacturers looking to generate new facilities in the UK and surrounding waters. Essentially the investment will ensure that port infrastructure does not delay the deployment of offshore wind manufacturing.

MORE ABOUT OFFSHORE ENERGY SUPPORT

Woah! Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted! As tempting as it is to continue with the theme, we’d better cut to the chase!

Smart Meters are arriving as we speak. The DECC (Dept. of Energy & Climate Change) talk in terms of: 160,000 05‐08 profile electricity meters and 40,000 large gas meters (732 MWhs). These are all supposed to be replaced by 2014 and guess what, DECC and OFGEM are still discussing with energy suppliers the type and capability of the meters to be used, it’s that ‘VHS vs. BETAMAX’ debate all over again.

Worse still some suppliers (and we’re including the ‘big six’ in this) have seen this as some sort of opportunity to tie businesses into long‐term metering contracts, making it difficult to change suppliers come supply contract renewal time, and making spurious claims about ‘interoperability with other suppliers’ meters’.

Lets be clear there may be some technical issues, however, commercial restrictions are certainly not acceptable, and these views we believe are endorsed by the DECC. To make matters worse, there are instances of energy suppliers ringing business customers and telling them they must have a new smart meter by next April…it’s simply not true.

Our advice right now is ‘Hold Your Horses!’ be very careful about any Smart Meter arrangements, get Torse to check things out first…

Many businesses have reacted angrily to last week’s announcement regarding the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme and the new ‘green stealth tax’.

Following George Osborne’s speech at the Comprehensive Spending Review, it now appears promised rewards for improved energy efficiency generated from CRC participants will no longer be returned back to high performing organisations. Instead the government will pocket an anticipated £1 billion per year, totaling £3.46 billion between 2010 and 2015. Within the new cap‐and‐trade scheme, organisations are required to purchase CO2 allowances at a cost of £12 per tonne of CO2 emitted, coming at a considerable expense to some organisations.
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• Don’t Panic.
• What’s it all about?
• What do you need to do?
• Torse can Support the Process on your behalf.
Information Disclosure Reporting FREE for Torse Procurement Clients

Don’t Panic

Only a relatively small number of Torse Clients will (at this time) be significantly affected by the initial stages of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. For the majority it should only mean more ‘Government Red Tape’, sorry, I mean paperwork.

For most of our larger clients, there will be a requirement to be a FULL PARTICIPANT in the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme commencing April 2010. Torse will be contacting those clients who we are not already in discussion with about the practicalities.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CRC

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

The new Torse head office located in the well established and sought after business area of Nottingham city centre, Nottingham Lace Market has attracted much interest from the local press. The Nottingham Evening Post has published a story admiring Torse’s decision to move into such a prestigious location that holds so much history behind the original industries of Nottingham. Well that’s PR for you!

MORE ABOUT THE ARTICLE

Torse has recently been in contact with the Environmental Technology Centre [ETC], a research institute at Nottingham University. The primary focus of the ETC is to provide a service to Small to Medium sized businesses whereby they are able to provide up to 5 days energy usage analysis of a business in terms of their premises and practices with a report featuring advice and recommendations at the end of this process.

READ MORE ABOUT ETC AND TORSE