A new Shropshire company has been set up to help business electricity customers who want to sell electricity back to the National Grid.

MiPower has launched to help companies with the Feed in Tariff scheme launched by the government in April this year. It focuses on installing solar panels or photovoltaic systems and will help electricity customers maximise their returns from being self-sufficient.

Under the scheme, businesses and homes will be paid for any extra electricity that they generate. Although business electricity generators will have to pay tax on any profits they make, this could still provide significant help to keeping business electricity costs low.

Mark Jones from MiPower told the Birmingham Post: “The technology will work with pretty much any building, whether it’s domestic, commercial or industrial, the principle is much the same.”

Read more about MiPower in the Birmingham Post.

The UK government has launched the first stage of plans for domestic and business electricity customers to generate their own power, reports Energy Efficiency News.

Climate Change Minister Greg Barker hopes that this self-sufficiency drive will create not just power but jobs too and be more successful than the previous administration’s Feed-in-Tariff scheme, which only saw 100,000 home and business users installing microgeneration technology.

Mr Barker also stated he wants to work with industry experts to overcome challenges to microgeneration.

The initial process is three step. First, the government wants to discover how consumer confidence in these new technologies can be supported. Secondly, they want to ensure the microgeneration supply chain has the correct skills to meet demand, creating jobs in the process. Finally, the government wants to discover how microgeneration products can be improved by running a series of trials.

Contributions can be made to the consultation between now and December 22. For more information, click here.

The National Grid has announced a significant programme of investment.

The National Grid has announced a £22billion investment plan for the next five years, along with a rights issue to raise £3.2 billion.

Capital raised through the rights issue will be divided between linking new offshore wind farms and nuclear power plants to the grid, updating of wiring in London and Birmingham and the development of new gas interconectors.

The infrastructure investment will raise bills for domestic and business electricity customers, although the National Grid is quick to claim that it will transform the system into one capable of operating in a new decarbonised energy future – therefore representing value for money.

The National Grid also aims to maintain discussions with Ofgem about the electricity regulatory system in the UK and will continue to work with the regulator on Project Discovery, which is exploring how much the current energy market can support climate change targets while keeping household and business electricity prices affordable.

Read the full story at Energy Efficiency News.

Picture credit – CCA: Electricity Pylon by hydroxi

Advertising billboards will generate their own electricity in the USA.

US advertising company Lamar Advertising has come up with a novel way of generating electricity for business use – by manufacturing its billboards to run from renewable energy sources. Any excess energy generated by the solar panels and wind turbines used to power the billboards will be fed back into the American power grid.

The project of installation will take about a year to complete and is funded by a US government grant. Each billboard is expected to last for between 20 and 25 years, by which time the cost of creating the billboards will have been covered. The question is whether this form of electricity generation will take off here in the UK.

Last month, the UK government introduced the much trumpeted Feed in Tariff (FiT) scheme, designed to encourage both household and business electricity customers to generate their own electricity from renewable sources.

Under this programme, business electricity customers who produce energy from, for example, solar panels or micro-wind turbines receive an above the market rate for any excess electricity that is fed back into the National Grid.

This is all part of the target that by 2020 15 per cent of the UK’s total energy production should come from renewable energy sources. The FiT scheme is open to commercial energy customers whose electricity usage does not exceed five megawatts.

For advice on green business electricity tariffs and tips on saving business energy, contact Energy Advice Line.

Read the full story of the green billboards in Business Green.

Picture credit – CCA: Billboard by the side of the road by David Hilowitz

The North Sea is a prime site for renewables and gas storage.

The Government today granted an official licence to The Gateway Project, a new development to increase the UK’s gas storage capacity. However, I read in The Daily Telegraph today that the storage facility, 15 miles out at sea from Barrow-in-Furness, will only hold enough gas to meet five days of ‘average’ demand. This won’t be enough to put the minds of business gas customers concerned about supply shortages and spiralling costs at ease.

The project will see 20 natural salt caverns that sit some 750 metres beneath the seabed being filled with 1.5bn cubic metres of gas, which will then be linked by a pipeline to the UK’s gas system. It is estimated that the process of removing salt from the caves, filling them with gas and constructing the pipeline will take four years and cost £600million, meaning that it’s scheduled to come online just a year before OfGem’s predicted danger time of gas shortages in 2015.

Fears of shortages in the gas supply have provoked much debate about how secure the UK’s gas really is, with politicians, the media and business energy customers among those raising concerns.

Meanwhile, whilst the Government is busy promoting green energy options through the Clean Energy Cashback scheme, it appears local communities aren’t sold on the benefits of wind power just yet. The Dorset Echo reports that a planning application has been submitted to Purbeck District Council to build a wind farm with four wind turbines each standing at 410 feet tall.

However, despite the fact the site marked for the turbines is a brownfield site, a pressure group called Dorset Against Rural Turbines and members of the local community are concerned that the turbines would be “unsightly”, would distract passing drivers and wouldn’t produce enough energy to make them viable.

The debate on renewable energy and what the best way to ensure the UK’s gas and electricity supplies are secure and affordable will no doubt rage for a long time yet. However, you can take action to cut the costs of your business gas and business electricity right now. By contacting Energy Advice Line’s expert team of advisors, you can check you are on the most efficient and cost-effective business energy tariff for your company, get help with switching, and have all your business energy questions answered.

To read the full Daily Telegraph story, click this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/7237286/New-600m-gas-storage-caverns-will-handle-just-five-days-demand.html

And to read the full Dorset Echo story, click this link:

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/5007743.Dorset_wind_farm_whips_up_fury/

Picture credit – CCA: Energy From The Sea by Christopher Owen Jones, from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisowenjones/2393769926

Five of the big six energy suppliers have been accused breaching regulations by overcharging customers using pre-pay gas and electricity meters.

Scottish Power, British Gas, Npower, Scottish & Southern and E.ON were all breaking rules set by the energy regulator Ofgem on how much more pre-pay customers can be charged than those paying by direct debit, the National Housing Federation (NHF) said.

Julian Morgan, MD, Energy Advice Line also pointed out how this is going to affect British businesses who are currently facing the challenge of managing their overheads, in particular their business electricity and gas bills at this critical time of the year.

“It is very true to say that this will affect small business energy consumers as well with Energy companies adopting the same strategy of maintaining a healthy credit balance.

However, there is a very easy way for customers to just pay for the energy they consume and claim any credit balance owing to them. We would advise customers to read their meter at least once a quarter and send this to their supplier. The supplier will in turn re-bill the customer and also show any credit balance on a statement. If the customer is approaching the colder winter period, we would advise that they keep a credit balance which will account for extra usage, but if the credit balance is excessive based on over estimated bills, the supply company is obliged to repay this as well as reduce the monthly direct debit amount so that an excessive balance is not allowed to build up again.

It all starts with the customer providing meter readings on a consistent basis and not letting the supply company accrue a hefty credit balance.”

www.energyadviceline.org.uk for advice on business electricity and business gas

• See complete article written by David Batty at guardian.co.uk, Saturday 28 November 2009

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/nov/28/energy-firms-accused-overcharging-prepay