Energy future is decentralized

EREVITA Team, 8.10.2020 21:31:50

Hethel, Norfolk, UK, 8 October 2020 – Lotus and British Gas Business have embarked on a new green electricity deal, which sees the UK’s largest energy supplier provide renewable power to the sports car maker’s headquarters and supporting facilities. The contract, which began on 1st October, is REGO-backed (Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin), where the power is purchased from 100% renewable sources, ensuring the electricity used across Lotus’ UK sites is carbon neutral. As a flexible contract, Lotus can also develop its own renewable assets on sites to self-support its power needs and further its green credentials In May, Centrica (the parent company of British Gas) and Lotus announced a partnership to develop a new model for electric vehicle (EV) ownership that fully integrates future mobility and energy. Together, the companies aim to redefine and integrate the relationship between consumers, cars and electricity – controlled by smart devices at home and on the move – which will result in more efficient energy usage, carbon and cost savings. The companies are also set to introduce a comprehensive sustainability programme across Lotus, leveraging innovative, low-carbon technologies and mitigating the impacts of key business operations from manufacturing through to sales and supporting functions. "This is an exciting new partnership which has got off to a fast start with this new supply contract announced today. Green power supplies offer an efficient means to supercharge commercial sustainability, and there is much more to follow from Centrica and Lotus as we plot the carmaker’s course to zero carbon." Carl Bayliss, Vice President of Mobility at Centrica. “This is a huge first step for us in our commitment to becoming a 100% carbon neutral business. Next steps include working across our supply chain as part of our net-zero pledge, launching more zero-emissions vehicles as introduced with the Lotus Evija hypercar, and ensuring these vehicles are manufactured and distributed using the latest, sustainable technology and techniques,” said Uday Senapati, Lotus Cars’ Executive Director of Corporate Strategy and Product Management. He added: “This is a step change and the start of an exciting journey for Lotus, which is not only about decarbonisation and environmental awareness, but also about making a significant, positive contribution to the customer journey. We will integrate cars, homes and mobile devices, making our model the most efficient, convenient and connected way to utilise energy.”

EREVITA Team, 25.10.2019 18:59:19

Danielle Rowley, the Shadow Minister for Climate Justice and Green Jobs, has visited the electric vehicle hub in Dundee, which is celebrating a year of generating energy and carbon savings. Centrica Business Solutions designed and built the EV Hub, introducing fast and rapid charging, powered by solar power generation and on-site battery storage. The city now has one of the most extensive charging infrastructures in the UK. Nine out of the top 10 most used rapid chargers in Scotland are located in Dundee. The city also boasts 102 ‘plug-in’ electric taxis and 30% of buses are now electric. In addition, Dundee City Council has the largest fleet of electric vehicles of any local authority in the UK, with 87 to date. Over the last 12 months there have been more than 24,000 charging sessions at the Princess Street site, saving approximately 256 tons of CO2. The solar produced has allowed a car to go to the moon and back 2.5 times.

EREVITA Team, 25.10.2019 19:35:44

Centrica is to absorb thousands of residential hot water tanks into its virtual power plant (VPP) to provide flexibility to the grid. The energy giant has secured approval from National Grid to use the tanks for firm frequency response (FFR) as part of a 2.5GW VPP it is establishing in the UK. The tanks will be provided through a partnership with Mixergy, a spin-off company from the University of Oxford which has previously received investment from Centrica Innovations. The first batch of 100 tanks have already been installed and will be capable of storing energy at times of high renewables, responding at times of stress whilst maintaining efficiency, cost and comfort. The tanks are set to help balance the grid through storing excess load on the grid and time shifting demand. Charles Cameron, chairman of Centrica Innovations, said: "The first batch of 100 hot water tanks, which are now in homes in the UK will, at times of stress, be capable of capturing energy at low market prices on sunny or windy days when there is an abundance of renewables on the network, all whilst maintaining efficiency, cost and comfort for our customers.

EREVITA Team, 3.11.2019 09:47:50

Intersect Power and Direct Energy Business Sign Long-term Power Purchase Agreement on 250 MW Solar Project in California Intersect Power, a utility-scale renewable energy developer, and Direct Energy Business, part of Direct Energy, one of North America's largest energy and energy-related services providers, and a subsidiary of Centrica PLC, announced today that they have entered into a long-term solar power purchase agreement (PPA) for Intersect Power’s Athos Solar I 250 megawatt (MWAC) project. This agreement enables Direct Energy to contract with Direct Access (DA) customers and Community Choice Aggregations (CCAs) as they decarbonize their electricity supplies. Once completed, the combined 450 MWAC Athos Solar I and II project will be one of the largest solar installations in California. Located on more than 3,200 acres of land in the Desert Center area in Riverside County, the project will support over 500 jobs during construction in the county and generate enough clean electricity to power 136,500 homes and result in some 1 million tons of avoided CO2 emissions per year. “The team at Intersect Power is pleased to work with Direct Energy to deliver new in-state renewable energy generation options for California homes and businesses,” said Sheldon Kimber, CEO and co-founder of Intersect Power. “Together, we are creating a long-term agreement to benefit Southern Californian communities and help households reduce their environmental impact.” “This transaction demonstrates Direct Energy’s unique ability to create long-term renewable energy solutions that combine the strengths of customers, project developers, and energy service providers alike.” said David Brast, Senior Vice President, North America Power and Gas, Direct Energy Business. “Athos Solar I is an exciting project to be a part of. Intersect has developed several excellent projects and we are proud to collaborate with them. Direct Energy is looking forward to the project helping enable our customers to move to a lower carbon future.” The Athos I project is scheduled to begin construction in June 2020 and Athos II in October 2020.

EREVITA Team, 5.11.2019 16:50:55

Centrica Business Solutions, part of Centrica plc, a global energy and services company, invested in the development of a 4.99MW fuel cell facility in South Windsor, Connecticut. This fuel cell facility will deliver power to the local utility, Eversource Energy, under a 20-year purchase power agreement (PPA). Fuel cells generate electricity through a chemical reaction process that is clean, quiet and highly efficient with little to no harmful emissions. This project will provide enough clean energy to power over 4,200 homes per year. Centrica acquired the project (South Energy Investments LLC) in March 2019 from a leading Massachusetts-based fuel cell development team. This investment is a part of Centrica's Ambition 2030 which outlines 15 long-term goals to reduce the company's emissions, and enable customers to use energy more sustainably. The fuel cell manufacturer and long-term operations and maintenance provider for the project is Doosan Fuel Cell America, Inc. Located less than two miles from the South Windsor project, Doosan Fuel Cell America, Inc. is a leading fuel cell solutions company that designs, manufactures, and installs clean, efficient and reliable fuel cells. The project is currently under construction and is on track to be completed in early 2020. Connecticut is one of the nation's leaders in supporting fuel cell technologies and projects under development. The Connecticut fuel cell industry supports more than 2,800 direct, indirect and induced jobs and creates over $600 million annually in revenue and investment. "By building and expanding our technology framework through significant distributed generation projects like this, we open the door for new ways to help our customers transform their energy footprint into a source of true competitive advantage," said Stephen Prince, Head of Centrica Business Solutions North America. "We are excited to support the development team and work closely with Doosan Fuel Cell America."

EREVITA Team, 11.11.2019 10:37:18

Cornish homes take part in trial to supply clean power to grid Hundreds of homes and businesses in Cornwall have started selling electricity to their local energy network and the national energy system in a pioneering move. The trial is the first time that traditional energy users – such as homes, hotels and businesses – have acted as suppliers in a microcosm of a full energy system. The trial harnessed together 100 Cornish homes, fitted with batteries and solar panels, to act as a mini virtual power plant for the local energy network, Western Power Distribution, and the UK’s energy system operator, National Grid. During sunny spells when homes generate more than enough electricity from solar panels they can store the power to use later, or supply the energy system with clean extra power. Advertisement The homes took part in the trial alongside 150 local businesses, which were prepared to adjust how much energy they used depending on the balance of energy supply and demand on the grid. If wind and solar power output dropped the companies could choose to use less electricity in exchange for a payment from National Grid, or if the local grid had more electricity than it needed the companies could ramp up their energy demand. National Grid already offers to pay firms that own utility-scale batteries to provide a similar service, but the trial is the first time that companies can take part in the same “local energy market” as the network operator. The market was designed by energy giant Centrica and modelled on the same system used to balance energy markets across Europe. The energy companies believe the trial could help create a nationwide chain of flexible smart grids built around clean energy. Pieter-Jan Mermans, a director at Centrica Business Solutions, described the trial as “a milestone moment for the energy network” after years of research. “Improving grid flexibility benefits everyone from generators to consumers, and these trials represent a major step forward. We are hugely grateful to the householders and businesses across Cornwall who have embraced this trial with open arms,” he said. Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk One local business, The Cornish Ice Company, is using its industrial freezers to act as a battery for the grid. The company can easily cut electricity to its freezers for short periods without affecting temperatures, meaning it can offer spare electricity to either the local grid or the national system operator. “Exploring the provision of flexibility through a local energy market is a first for us.” Colm Murphy, a senior manager at National Grid, said. “The potential is really exciting as we look to unlock more flexible energy resources in the market, and greater cost benefits to consumers,” he added.

EREVITA Team, 21.11.2019 11:07:16

Trading Update 21 November 2019 "Our performance has been solid so far in the second half of the year and we remain on track to achieve our full year targets for both adjusted operating cash flow and net debt. I am encouraged by further growth in customer accounts and the recovery of business energy supply margins in North America, while we also continue to drive material levels of efficiency and maintain capital discipline. Our focus remains on satisfying the changing needs of our customers, providing energy supply and its optimisation, and services and solutions to enable the transition to a lower carbon future."

EREVITA Team, 11.12.2019 23:31:41

Chris O'Shea, Executive Director, bought 6,150 shares in the company on the 9th December 2019 at a price of 80.99p. The Director now holds 118,985 shares representing 0.00% of the shares in issue.

EREVITA Team, 14.12.2019 09:41:59

Centrica has struck a deal to install electric car charging points on the outskirts of London. The British Gas owner will add charging points to ten car dealerships owned by Citygate. The sites are 'the gateway to London', said Centrica executive Carl Bayliss, spanning an arc on the edge of the proposed ultra-low emissions zone from Ruislip in West London to Reading. Innovation: Smart charging means electric cars will help 'smooth' electricity usage from the National Grid through the day by being charged mainly at night +1 Innovation: Smart charging means electric cars will help 'smooth' electricity usage from the National Grid through the day by being charged mainly at night Centrica plans to install electric vehicle charging points in homes too. In the summer, it announced plans to develop a home charging installation service for Ford owners, offering cheaper tariffs for overnight charging. Smart charging means electric cars will help 'smooth' electricity usage from the National Grid through the day by being charged mainly at night, when demand is low. Last month 246,000 plug-in cars had been registered in the UK, up from 3,500 in 2013. The boom will require 29,000 charging points by 2030, when electric vehicles are expected to account for 60 per cent of new car and van sales.

EREVITA Team, 13.1.2020 12:27:56

Mixergy raises £3.6m for FFR hot water tanks rollout Cleantech company Mixergy has raised £3.6 million to continue its rollout of hot water tanks used for firm frequency response (FFR). The Oxford University spin-out has a partnership with Centrica to integrate its hot water tanks into a virtual power plant (VPP) that is being established in the UK by the energy giant. The 2.5GW VPP secured permission in September from National Grid to use the tanks for FFR, a service Mixergy says it has now started to provide. The company has now raised £3.6 million in its Series A financing to both support the roll out of tanks with British Gas customers and to fuel the next stage of growth in developing innovation and efficient tanks, it said. The lead investor in this round was Foresight Williams Technology, an early stage investor scheme fund collaboration between Foresight Group and Williams Advanced Engineering, with Centrica Innovations also coming back to the company. It made a previous investment into Mixergy in February 2019. Other investors in the Series A funding round were Oxford Sciences Innovation and IP Group. Chris Wiles, senior investment manager at Foresight Group, said the fund was “very impressed” with Mixergy’s vision for better hot water tanks that save consumers energy whilst facilitating the uptake of renewables. “We look forward to supporting Mixergy in the coming years with the rollout of its products across the UK, Europe and North America.” Mixergy’s tanks use machine learning, enterprise data dashboards and an app interface, heating water only when needed. It provides FFR through turning on and off when required, achieved through developments in sensing and control, along with a software platform capable of optimising household heating schedules across a national network of smart connected hot water tanks it has dubbed the Internet of Tanks. Peter Armstrong, CEO of Mixergy, said the funding round comes at an exciting time in markets across the UK, Western Europe and North America. "With recent pledges to transition from natural gas in new build properties by 2025 across Europe along with unprecedented volatility in the UK’s electricity balancing market, Mixergy is well positioned to accelerate the low carbon transition through relationships with low cost manufacturing supply chains that cater to a global market.”

EREVITA Team, 27.1.2020 16:19:33

New wind turbine to supply green energy to 1,100 Cornish homes Construction has started on Cornwall’s first, smart grid-connected wind turbine which will power the equivalent of around 1,100 homes and help cut carbon emissions. The 2.3 megawatt (MW) turbine will be sited on Cornwall Council land at Ventonteague, near Carland Cross, on the A30, and is the first to be built in Cornwall since 2016. It will generate enough renewable electricity to reduce Cornwall’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2,800 tonnes a year over the next two decades. The smart grid-connected turbine will help Cornwall better manage its energy supply and power the equivalent of around 1,180 Cornish homes, representing a significant contribution towards the Council’s climate emergency agenda. Transforming the energy sector is an essential part of Cornwall Council’s response to tackling the climate emergency as Cornwall now generates around 37% of electricity from renewables, up from around 6% in 2009. Award-winning initiatives such as the Green Cornwall programme have driven forward major changes promoting community and Council-owned renewable energy projects and developing potential new forms of power in technologies such as deep geothermal. The new wind turbine is part of an EU-funded trial and forms part of the innovative Cornwall Local Energy Market (LEM) which aims to help increase the amount of renewable energy that can be deployed by managing the electricity network more efficiently. Launched in December 2016, the LEM project is receiving £11.5m support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is a collaboration between Centrica, Western Power Distribution (WPD), N-SIDE, Imperial College, the University of Exeter and National Grid. The project brings Cornish homes and businesses together via a fully automated online flexible energy market platform. The platform allows network operators, the organisations that run our electricity distribution and transmission networks, to improve the way the grid works by buying energy flexibility from local homes and businesses, helping to balance both grid demand and capacity. The LEM is now in its live trials phase, which are set to continue until March.

EREVITA Team, 11.5.2020 16:24:11

LONDON, May 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Centrica plc, the parent company of British Gas, and British motor manufacturer Lotus are working together to develop a new model for electric vehicle ownership that fully integrates future mobility and energy. By making the car an extension of the home, capable of storing electricity, minimising emissions and generating new income by providing services to the energy market, the companies aim to redefine the customer relationship with cars – one controlled by smart devices at home and on the move. The energy company will also facilitate a sustainability program that leverages innovative, low carbon technologies, and helps mitigate the environmental impact of everything from manufacturing through to sales and the day-to-day activities of Lotus employees, helping meet Lotus' carbon reduction aspirations. The new partnership will help establish a new global charging and energy infrastructure for new products as part of Lotus' journey to net zero carbon following huge investment into the business since 2018.

EREVITA Team, 26.5.2020 13:12:23

Centrica Business Solutions and AVK have today (Tuesday 26th May) signed an exclusive collaboration agreement to co-develop solutions for the data centre market utilising gas engine power generation systems and other energy technologies. AVK is the largest supplier of data centre and financial sector critical power solutions in the UK and Ireland , while Centrica Business Solutions specialises in gas generation, route to market services, optimisation and innovative financial structures, such as the provision of energy as a service. In order to combat the shortage of grid capacity available to data centres, and to overcome changing environmental legislation around the use of diesel generation, they will join forces to deploy gas back up and prime power solutions into the data centre market across the UK and Europe. "We have been actively seeking a partner to help us develop our capability in prime power and gas back-up generation. Centrica has extensive experience with gas engines and the nuances of the energy markets and represents the ideal partner with which to develop a compelling market offering." Ben Pritchard, Sales Director, AVK The collaboration agreement commits both companies to co-develop a suite of secure power offerings that deliver a more sustainable energy pathway for data centres without any compromise to on-site resilience.

EREVITA Team, 24.7.2020 09:03:33

British Gas owner Centrica has said it will sell off its US energy retail arm in a £2.8 billion deal. Direct Energy, which was bought by Centrica in 2000, will be sold to NRG Energy, allowing the British company to focus on its home markets in the UK and Ireland. Direct Energy has around 4,000 employees and four million customers, making it one of North America’s largest gas and electricity suppliers. The news of the US sale came as Centrica, which is trying to turn around its flagging fortunes, revealed that it had more than halved its pre-tax loss to £264 million in the six months to June 30, compared to £569 million over the same period last year. The company said it had lost 5% of its home energy customers, bringing it to around 5.2 million. Chief executive Chris O’Shea, who took over earlier this year, said: “Centrica delivered a resilient performance against the unprecedented backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis during the first half of the year. “That is due to the response of colleagues across the group to keep our customers warm, safe and supplied with energy and services during the pandemic. I am truly grateful for their efforts. “Our mission now is to turn around the company by putting customers at the heart of everything we do and creating a simpler, leaner, more modern and more sustainable company. “The sale of Direct Energy is a fundamental step towards this, and although we have a lot more to do, we have the people, the brands and the market positions to deliver a successful turnaround.” Centrica also reiterated its intention to restart the sale of its 69% stake in Spirit Energy when markets recover from the Covid-19 pandemic

Lubomir, 11.4.2022 11:41:56

Centrica signs development deal for pipeline of grid-scale solar energy projects with Push Energy Centrica signs development deal for pipeline of grid-scale solar energy projects with Push Energy Centrica Business Solutions has signed a framework agreement with renewable energy developer Push Energy, to build a pipeline of solar farm projects in the UK. It forms part of Centrica Energy Assets’ ambitions to deliver 900MW of solar and battery storage by 2026. Push Energy is renowned for its ability to develop, construct and operate high quality renewable energy assets, and has delivered 350MW of energy projects across grid-scale and roof top solar. Centrica Energy Assets, a team established by Centrica Business Solutions to develop large scale, grid-connected solar and battery storage assets in the UK and Europe, will work with Push to take projects from site identification to commercial operation. "This is an important relationship and a big step towards our aim to develop, build, manage and optimise a 900MW portfolio of Centrica-owned solar and battery projects" Bill Rees, Director of Centrica Energy Assets In addition, Centrica will use Push as a turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) provider to build solar projects that are developed through a framework agreement between Centrica Energy Assets and Push. Bill Rees, Director of Centrica Energy Assets, said, “This is an important relationship and a big step towards our aim to develop, build, manage and optimise a 900MW portfolio of Centrica-owned solar and battery projects, that will help provide our customers with clean energy.” Amit Oza, Chief Commercial officer of Push said, “Push is committed to helping the UK reach net zero by 2050, by developing and constructing sustainable solar farms that give back to the local community. Working with Centrica is an excellent opportunity which will help us accelerate this process.” Centrica has committed to reach Net Zero by 2045 and for its customers by 2050. Reducing the carbon content of the company's energy supply by supporting the expansion and take-up of clean energy is core to achieving Net Zero.