In our latest round-up of the weekend’s national news coverage, the government is poised to reveal unlimited fines for polluting water companies. Elsewhere, SMEs are expected to struggle to survive due to the end of energy bill support and Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf accuses UK ministers of ‘relegating’ Scottish carbon capture projects.
Unlimited penalties for water firms that pollute
Water companies will face unlimited fines for polluting rivers and the sea under government plans to protect the environment.
Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, will announce plans next week to scrap the £250,000 cap on civil penalties for companies.
The Times has been told that the government wants to allow the Environment Agency to impose unlimited fines without going through the courts.
Ministers are also expected to announce plans to “ring-fence” any money from fines and penalties and use it to improve the environment under a new “water restoration fund”. The fund would be devoted to projects such as improving habitats and tackling invasive species.
The proposals will be included in a consultation published on Tuesday.
A government source said: “The status quo is not acceptable. We need to sort this out and the water companies need to play their part in the solution.”
The Times Clean It Up campaign has called for better investment and transparency to tackle sewage spills from storm overflows, leading to all of England’s wastewater companies promising a nearly real-time map of spills by the end of the year. It has also demanded beefed-up powers for the Environment Agency.
A water company serving northwest England dumped the most sewage pollution last year, accounting for almost a fifth of the 302,000 national spills.
The number of storm overflow spills into rivers or the sea fell by a fifth across England. The government said, however, that the discharges were “unacceptable” and water companies could take no credit because it was a dry year.
United Utilities, which covers Liverpool and Manchester, caused 69,000 spills and had the site with the longest-lasting sewage spills in the country. The Plumbland treatment works in Cumbria had 339 spills over the equivalent of 287 days into the River Ellen, home to salmon, sea trout and eels.
Official figures published on Friday show the number of spills from overflows, designed to act as relief valves during heavy rainfall, fell by 19 per cent. They show that 91 per cent of overflows are monitored at present. There is a deadline of the end of the year for 100 per cent to be monitored.
The government said the reduction in spills was due to a dry year, with only 90 per cent of average rainfall and a lengthy drought over the summer.
John Leyland, Environment Agency executive director, said: “The decrease in spills in 2022 is largely down to dry weather, not water company action.”
Companies have argued that the fall was partly due to investment in infrastructure. The industry insisted the direction of travel was “positive news”.
An officer in Water UK, the trade group, said: “This is an important milestone and the fourth consecutive year we have seen a fall in the number of spills from each storm overflow.”
Rebecca Pow, the water minister, said: “The volume of sewage being discharged into our waters is unacceptable and we are taking action to make sure polluters are held to account.”
The Liberal Democrats said Coffey should resign. Sir Ed Davey, the party leader, said: “These figures are a damning verdict on the government’s failure to protect our treasured rivers and lakes. This is a national scandal.”
United Utilities spilt sewage for 425,491 hours during the year and is responsible for nine of the ten worst spillage sites across the country.
Matt Staniek, of the Save Windermere campaign, said: “United Utilities even discharges sewage into Lake Windermere. If sewage is going into Windermere, imagine what’s happening to your local river.”
The duration of United Utilities’ spills was 47 per cent higher than the second worst offender, South West Water, which racked up 290,271 hours.
The worst location for the number of spills was South West Water’s Warfleet Creek Pumping Station in Dartmouth, Devon. It discharged sewage 364 times into the River Dart, which runs off from Dartmoor.
An official at United Utilities said: “We know there is much more to be done. With the largest combined sewer network in the country and 28 per cent more rainfall in our region than the UK average, we have ambitious plans to deliver further improvements.”
John Halsall, chief operating officer at South West Water, said: “We are reducing the use of storm overflows. Our plan is working but there is more to do.”
Every water company recorded a fall in the number and duration of spills between 2021 and last year. Thames Water reported the greatest reduction with a 45 per cent fall from 14,713 to 8,014. The company’s chief executive, Sarah Bentley, has said she is “heartbroken” by the spills and is investing £1.6 billion over the next two years to improve sewage treatment works and sewers.
United Utilities recorded a 15 per cent fall in spills, to 69,245. Wessex Water had the smallest fall, down 7 per cent to 21,878. Southern Water had the smallest reduction in duration of spills, down 9 per cent to 146,819 hours.
Amy Slack, campaigns manager of the River Action charity, said it was “disgraceful” that a daily average of more than 5,000 hours of untreated sewage was released.
The Times
‘We won’t be here for long’: UK firms fear the worst as energy bill support ends
Thousands of small businesses risk going bust as “brutal” energy bills are to double with the end of a government support scheme from this weekend.
Companies are braced for an increase in energy costs as the government’s support for non-household energy bills falls away, and many fixed rate deals come to an end. The combined impact could drive energy bills for many companies up by as much as 133% , according to analysts at the consultancy Cornwall Insight.
Craig Lowrey, a principal analyst at Cornwall Insight, said the “worst-case scenario” would be “especially brutal” for companies that locked in to their fixed bills during the energy market peak last year and who would “no longer be able to count on the safety net of government support”.
Julian Pariera, the owner of Beauchamp Laundry Services in Birmingham, said: “It will dramatically affect our business.” Pariera told the Guardian in late 2021 that the energy cost crisis was likely to drive the company’s energy bills up fourfold. Since then, his gas bills have climbed almost five times higher, he said.
“We’ve already had to put our prices up by 25%, which means some customers who would come in to do laundry every two weeks are now waiting to wash once a month. We can’t put our prices up any more. We know that many of our customers are vulnerable and are feeling squeezed, and we just can’t squeeze them any more,” he said.
Energy costs are also a big burden for the hospitality industry, which was already hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a rash of pub closures across the UK.
“This is the end of the independent village pub,” one publican said. The pub owner asked not to be named because he expects the financial toll of the energy crisis will force him to sell his pub to a developer interested in converting the building into a block of flats.
“We won’t be here for long. At the moment we’re putting our own money into the pub to keep it going, but it will fail. It’s a matter of how long we’re willing to go on. There are pubs going under every day. Soon we’ll be back to the 90s when tenants were just leaving their keys behind,” he said.
The government stepped in to protect businesses from the soaring cost of energy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year but the scheme will be replaced from Saturday.
The scheme, which launched in October, was described by chancellor Jeremy Hunt as “unsustainably expensive” because it capped the cost of electricity and gas at an estimated £18bn for six months. Under the new scheme, companies will receive up to £5.5bn of support over the next year.
The government on Saturday launched a campaign to help struggling small and medium-sized businesses manage their energy costs, which will offer guidance on how to save energy such as installing light and heating timers, or turning down boiler flow temperature and changing lightbulbs.
Guardian
Britain to get floating gas terminals in energy security boost
Floating gas terminals are to be anchored off Britain’s coast under plans being worked on to boost energy security.
Government officials say they are working to support firms who want to install the vessels in the UK, as part of efforts to avoid a repeat of this winter’s energy crisis.
It would bolster the UK’s capacity to import from around the world, potentially making it less exposed to gas market shocks as domestic supplies fall.
Officials said that a “small number” of commercial firms were developing plans to set up floating terminals to turn liquified natural gas (LNG), sent to the UK on ships, back into gaseous form to pipe into the gas network.
They said officials were “working with these parties to support these developments” which could “further increase the resilience of the UK’s gas importation capability”.
They added: “ can be quickly linked to the UK gas network without the need for extensive new infrastructure; and can be readily re-deployed to other markets should the UK no longer require the additional capability in the future.”
Britain gets most of its gas from Norway and the UK side of the North Sea. However, an increasing proportion comes as LNG in ships from the US, Peru and around the world, accounting for 35pc of demand last year.
Demand for LNG in Europe and the UK climbed last year after Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe, helping push up gas prices to the record levels that have triggered the cost of living crisis.
The UK has three permanent LNG terminals in Wales and Kent, amounting to import capacity of about 48 billion cubic metres per year or about two-thirds of the UK’s gas demand of 72bcm in 2022.
Germany has relied heavily on floating gas import terminals since Russian supplies were cut off to help it ramp up capacity to accept LNG shipments.
Experts said Britain’s import capacity was less of a problem compared to securing the gas at a fair price in the first place.
Clive Moffatt, gas consultant at Moffatt Associates and former adviser to the Government on energy security, said: “We have adequate terminal capacity – the problem in the past has been getting what we need when we need it in winter.”
Gas prices have eased in recent months thanks to warmer weather. However, prices could rebound later in the year, experts have warned.
Niall Trimble, managing director at The Energy Contract Company consultancy, said there is “huge uncertainty” over China’s demand for gas shipment imports in 2023, warning this “may be higher than expected”.
The Telegraph
Yousaf accuses UK ministers of ‘relegating’ Scottish carbon capture project
First Minister Humza Yousaf has hit out at the UK Government as he claimed its new energy strategy had “relegated” a planned carbon capture and storage project in the north east of Scotland.
He contrasted the approach of the Scottish Government with that of the Conservatives at Westminster – saying he had appointed a Net Zero and Just Transition Secretary to “unlock our green potential”.
Mr Yousaf was speaking after the Acorn project in the north-east was included in Track-2 of the UK’s capture usage and storage (CCUS) cluster sequencing process, which aims to identify the next two projects that will contribute to the Government’s ambition to capture and successfully store some 20 to 30 megatonnes of CO2 emissions a year by 2030.
It said that, at this stage, it considers the Acorn Transport and Storage System in Aberdeenshire one of the two best placed to deliver its objectives.
Scottish Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville branded the decision not to award the Scottish cluster Track-1 status “frankly illogical”.
She said while the UK Government strategy did have “some welcome announcements”, ministers had failed to “provide a clear content and a strategy to decarbonise the energy economy”.
Ms Somerville said: “While we welcome the UK finally setting out the Scottish cluster is eligible for Track-2, they have failed to provide any certainty for when that funding will be awarded.
“This Government will continue to support the north east and ensure we are supporting our highly skilled workforce. It is disappointing that the UK Government has once again failed to do so.”
Her comments came after Westminster’s net-zero minister had insisted Scotland would be “at the heart” of UK Government plans to power up Britain – with a pledge that jobs and investment will come north as a result of its strategy to boost affordable, clean, home-grown power and build green industries.
Scotland is also said to be central to the UK Government’s goal of achieving 10GW of hydrogen production by 2030.
Four of the first 15 projects to be given a share of the £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF) to develop new low-carbon hydrogen production plants are in Scotland, it was announced on Thursday.
UK energy security and net-zero minister Graham Stuart said: “Scotland will be at the heart of our plans to power up Britain as we support its development of new home-grown technologies of the future.
“Today’s announcement will create opportunities for Scottish businesses to export their expertise around the world and set the standard for a clean, secure and prosperous future.”
Scotland’s winning NZHF projects are Statera, based in Kintore, Aberdeenshire, which plans to develop a 3GW, grid-connected, electrolytic hydrogen project that aims to use excess wind power to produce low-carbon, green hydrogen and supply it to the UK’s most carbon-intensive industrial clusters through existing gas transmission pipelines.
Octopus Energy’s Lanarkshire Green Hydrogen project plans to deploy 15MW of electrolysis directly connected to an onshore wind farm to produce more than 3.5 tonnes per day of green hydrogen.
The other winning projects are Falck Renewables, which plans to develop its Knockshinnoch Green Hydrogen Hub Project in Ayrshire, and Getech, which aims to build a major green hydrogen hub in Inverness that will produce, store and dispense green hydrogen – upwards of 10 tonnes a day over time.
UK Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps has also launched a £160 million fund for projects to build the port infrastructure needed to support further floating offshore wind power.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Thanks to our unique geography and strong expertise in clean technology, the UK is well placed to create thriving new industries in carbon capture, hydrogen and floating offshore wind across the country.
“By investing in new ways to power Britain from Britain, we will not only strengthen our long-term energy security, but also deliver on our promise to grow the economy with well-paid jobs and opportunities for businesses to export their expertise around the world.”
Scotland Office minister John Lamont said Scotland’s green energy potential is “at the heart” of the UK Government’s plans to deliver energy security, drive investment and grow the economy by developing clean domestic power sources.
He added: “From the carbon capture sector, where we are progressing at pace and investing up to £20 billion to help decarbonise our industries, to offshore wind, funding for low-carbon hydrogen projects and making the Contracts for Difference round an annual event, Scotland is a key part of the UK’s net zero plans and helping to boost economic growth through green jobs.”
Independent
Britain’s reservoirs finally fill up after wettest March in more than 40 years
Britain’s reservoirs have finally filled up again after the country’s wettest March in more than 40 years, as the Met Office warns of more rain to come.
Water levels appear to have increased, with huge visible differences compared with last summer – when droughts and H20 shortages forced hosepipe bans to be introduced.
Data up to March 30 showed 111.3mm of rain has fallen in the month across the country, 91% more than average.
Before and after images of reservoirs across England show the drastic differences between last week and August.
The region had 132.7mm of rainfall during March, more than double the average, making it the wettest since 2001.
It comes after a dry February meant a drop in the amount of water in Ardingly reservoir, according to Environment Agency data.
Stark photographs also show the wildly different water levels at Hanningfield Reservoir, in Essex, over the course of just eight months.
And in Yorkshire, pictures of Baitings Reservoir, Ripponden, showed how significantly water levels had increased between August 12 and Thursday March 30.
Alex Burkill, a Met Office meteorologist, said: ‘Water levels weren’t particularly high going into March, you need several months of wet weather to make a significant impact on reservoirs.
‘March was very wet for West Sussex, the fifth wettest month on record.’
In August 2022, Ardingly reservoir and Hanningfield reservoir in Essex both saw their water level drop by more than a fifth – the largest fall recorded by any reservoir or reservoir group.
Steve Andrews, South East Water’s head of service management, said: ‘Our water resources are in a healthy position at the current time and a little above where we would expect them to be.
‘Over the past three to six months, we have seen the drought conditions experienced during the summer be replaced by a period of exceptionally high rainfall that has had the benefit of replenishing our groundwater sources and reservoirs ready for summer 2023.’
Mr Andrews added: ‘During February, we did see a return to drier conditions, reminding us of the importance of being vigilant, and we are keeping a close watch on conditions as we move into spring.
‘As the days lengthen and the temperatures rise, we expect to see a greater demand for water so we will continue to work with our customers by asking them to use water wisely.’
It comes as Britain is set to see some slightly dryer weather over the coming days.
In England, cloud and drizzle is expected for parts of Sunday morning but the whole of the UK is expected to brighten up with sunny spells later in the day, according to the Met Office.
But Sunday evening could see some chilly temperatures and frost in parts of the north west of Scotland, while Northern Ireland is expected to be cloudy. The rest of the UK should be dry and clear for most of Sunday evening.
While brisk wind could be on its way for the south and east of England, Monday should be largely sunny and pleasant elsewhere.
And from Tuesday, frost is expected to return before rainfall in most places.
Into the East weekend, forecasters have suggested it could be a ‘fine start to the period’ with a change to milder weather.
And the pollen count will be medium for much of the south of England and the midlands later this week, as we move towards hay fever season.
The Daily Mail
Britishvolt buyer eyes comeback for ex-bosses as rescue falters
The Australian buyer of Britishvolt, the collapsed battery-making project, is in talks to bring back two former top executives to run it even as its rescue attempt falters.
Recharge Industries has approached former chairman Peter Rolton to be chief operating officer as it seeks to resurrect plans to build a “gigafactory” in Blyth, Northumberland. Tony Laydon, ex chief operating officer at Britishvolt, is thought to be in the frame to become chief executive.
Rolton’s return would be controversial with some current and former staff of Britishvolt, many of whom have been privately critical of his leadership. He was executive chairman from February 2022 until its collapse in January. One senior worker said they had been asked to return by Recharge but refused to do so if Rolton was involved.
Britishvolt, which had been looking to raise £3 billion for its gigafactory, ran out of money after failing to meet certain milestones that would have unlocked £100 million in government grants. Sources close to the previous management insisted it became impossible to raise money in the wake of the Ukraine war and higher interest rates.
Recharge, a start-up founded in 2021, bought Britishvolt out of administration for £8.6 million last month. But the deal was in peril this weekend after it missed a deadline on Friday to pay £9.7 million to Katch Fund Solutions, a finance firm that has a hold over the land. Recharge is understood to be in dispute with Britishvolt’s administrator, EY, over a fee for a power-supply contract for the site.
EY said it was “not requesting that Recharge make any additional payments beyond those contractually agreed as part of the sale”.
Sources close to Katch suggested a small extension would be granted to allow time for EY and Recharge to “stop squabbling”.
The Blyth site is considered one of the best locations in the UK to build a gigafactory as it is connected to undersea cables providing green electricity from Norway. Britishvolt had planned to produce batteries for cars and was seen as key to helping the UK’s automotive industry make the transition to electric vehicles.
Recharge, which is trying to get a similar project off the ground in Geelong, Australia, faces an uphill battle to revive the Blyth project. According to EY’s own estimates, it will need between £3 billion and £6 billion to complete the gigafactory.
Representatives of Rolton declined to comment. Recharge declined to comment.
The Sunday Times
Utility Week’s weekend press round-up is a curation of articles in the national newspapers relating to the energy and water sector. The views expressed are not those of Utility Week or Faversham House.