Category Archives: Energy industry

Fears over higher rates as Georgia moves to provide more electricity for AI datacenters

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State’s Republican-led public service commission to decide on power expansion and prices, as Democrats vie for voice

Georgia is facing the largest demand for electricity in its history, driven by nation-leading datacenter construction.

The Georgia Power company has made an unprecedented bid to the agency that oversees the utility for about 10 additional gigawatts of energy in the coming years – enough to power 8.3m homes, at an estimated cost of nearly $16bn, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.

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Energy firms complete UK’s first ‘hydrogen blending’ trial to power grid

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A 2% blend of low-carbon gas injected into gas grid to fuel Brigg power station in North Lincolnshire is a UK first

Energy companies have injected green hydrogen into Britain’s gas grid and used the low-carbon gas to generate electricity, in a landmark development for the UK’s climate ambitions.

For the first time in the UK, a 2% blend of green hydrogen was injected into the gas grid and blended with traditional gas to fuel the Brigg power station in North Lincolnshire which generated electricity for the power system.

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Richard Tice accepted stay at French Riviera home of Tory donor

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Reform deputy leader’s trip, worth £1,400, to Lubov Chernukhin’s property was for ‘discussing gas power in UK’

Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, accepted a £1,400 stay at the French Riviera home of Lubov Chernukhin, a Conservative donor and the wife of Russia’s former deputy finance minister, new filings show.

Tice enjoyed accommodation valued at £1,000 and meals worth £400 between 4 and 6 August at the Chernukhins’ property on the Mediterranean coast, listing the purpose as “discussing gas power in the UK”, according to the register of MPs’ interests.

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Ineos to cut a fifth of Hull jobs, blaming ‘dirt-cheap’ imports from China

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Company says more roles will be at risk unless UK government supports tariffs to protect industry

Ineos, the chemicals company owned by the billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, is to cut a fifth of jobs at its East Yorkshire plant, blaming “sky high” energy costs and “dirt-cheap” imports from China.

The company founded in 1998 by Ratcliffe, who co-owns Manchester United FC, said it would cut 60 jobs at the Acetyls site in Hull, which makes petrochemical products such as acetic acid. It said more roles would be at risk across the industry unless the government stepped in.

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Wetherspoon’s boss vows to keep price rises to a minimum as he criticises energy bills

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Beefed-up packaging tax will triple pub chain’s costs from the levy to £2.4m a year, says Tim Martin

The boss of the pub chain Wetherspoon’s has vowed to keep price increases to a “minimum”, after blaming a beefed-up packaging tax and rising energy bills for extra costs.

Tim Martin said the recently introduced “extended producer responsibility” levy on packaging would lead to the company’s costs from the tax tripling from £800,000 to £2.4m a year.

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‘It’s unsustainable’: homes in Great Britain brace for winter with soaring energy debts

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As typical annual dual-fuel charge rises to £1,755, charities warn over record £4.4bn owed to suppliers

Three and a half years after war plunged Europe into an energy supply crisis, millions of households in Great Britain are braced for another winter of painful gas and electricity bills.

On Wednesday, the quarterly cap on charges will increase again. Despite a fall in wholesale gas prices, the ceiling for a typical annual dual-fuel bill will rise by 2% to £1,755 to help cover the costs of energy policies and network upgrades.

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Britons preparing to ration energy as Ofgem price cap rises, says charity

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National Energy Action says 58% of households expect to cut heating use as typical annual dual-fuel bill increases to £1,755

The majority of British households expect to restrict their home heating this winter to try to keep rising costs in check, according to research released as the price cap that dictates most bills rose again.

The fuel poverty charity National Energy Action said 58% of households told its survey they were likely to trim their energy use, a nine-percentage-point increase from the level in January.

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Almost a third of Prax Lindsey oil refinery workers to lose jobs

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Insolvency Service says 125 roles to go at Lincolnshire plant, which went into administration in summer

Almost a third of workers at the Prax Lindsey oil refinery in north Lincolnshire, which collapsed into administration this summer, will lose their jobs at the end of October.

The Insolvency Service said the decision to make 125 roles redundant, with 255 people remaining at the site, “was not taken lightly” and follows a thorough review of “all aspects of the business, following its insolvency”.

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Hopes rise for green economy boom at Africa Climate Summit

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Renewables are thriving, with Africa breaking solar energy records – but action is needed to plug financing gap

The first signs of a takeoff of Africa’s green economy are raising hopes that a transformation of the continent’s fortunes may be under way, driven by solar power and an increase in low-carbon investment.

African leaders are meeting this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the Africa Climate Summit, a precursor to the global UN Cop30 in November. They will call for an increase in support from rich countries for Africa’s green resurgence, without which they will warn it could be fragile and spread unevenly.

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Octopus Energy founder appointed as UK government adviser

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Greg Jackson expected to use three-year term on Cabinet Office board to push government to modernise

Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founder of Octopus Energy as an adviser, with a remit to challenge government thinking.

Greg Jackson has joined the Cabinet Office board, an influential core of government advisers, as a non-executive member.

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Ukraine attacks pipeline that sends Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia

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Hungary’s foreign minister claims missile strike on energy infrastructure is ‘another attempt to drag us into war’

Ukraine has hit a key pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline bringing fuel to Europe from Russia, knocking out supplies to Hungary and Slovakia, the only remaining EU member states still receiving Russian oil.

As Ukraine targets infrastructure crucial to Moscow’s war effort in response to the Russian onslaught, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi, announced the attack on the Unecha pumping station in the Bryansk region.

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Loan ‘irregularities’ led to collapse of Prax Lindsey oil refinery

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Administrator was appointed after parent company State Oil was given new information about £783m loan

The Prax Lindsey oil refinery collapsed after “material irregularities” were discovered in a complex £783m loan facility that funded the wider group, it has emerged.

The refinery on the Humber estuary in northern England – one of just five left in the UK, – was suddenly plunged into administration in late June, prompting calls from furious government ministers for an investigation into Winston Soosaipillai, Prax Group’s oil tycoon owner.

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Wind generator Ørsted’s shares sink as it makes $9bn cash call

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Danish company blames Donald Trump for derailing its business model after market value drops by a third

Europe’s largest wind power company has blamed Donald Trump for derailing its business model, after it unveiled a $9bn (£6.7bn) fundraising and its market value plunged by almost a third.

The share price for Denmark’s Ørsted tumbled to an all-time low after it told investors on Monday that the “extraordinary situation” facing the industry meant it would need to tap shareholders to cover the costs of its plans.

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Swarm of jellyfish shuts nuclear power plant in France

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‘Massive and unpredictable’ swarm entered filter drums that pull in water, Gravelines operator EDF says

The Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France has been shut down after a swarm of jellyfish entered the filter drums that pull in cooling water, according to its state-owned operator, EDF.

The plant in northern France is one of the largest in the country and cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea.

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Elon Musk’s Tesla applies to supply electricity to households in Great Britain

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US carmaker makes move for licence that would allow it to provide energy to domestic and business premises

Elon Musk’s Tesla is gearing up to launch a household electricity supplier in Great Britain in the coming months.

The US electric car manufacturer run by the world’s richest man has formally applied to the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, for an electricity supply licence, according to a notice published on the watchdog’s website.

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UK ministers push ahead with discount on bills for households near new pylons

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Plans have provoked outrage from communities in areas of Great Britain expected to host new infrastructure

The government is pushing head with a plan to offer those who live near new electricity pylons a discount of £2,500 from their energy bills over the next 10 years to ease the backlash against its clean power plans.

Thousands of households within half a kilometre of new or upgraded electricity infrastructure could each receive up to £250 off their annual energy bill from next year to help speed up the rollout of infrastructure critical to the government’s targets.

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BP makes its biggest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off coast of Brazil

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Company to carry out more tests on its Santos basin find as it continues shift from renewables back to fossil fuels

BP has made its largest oil and gas discovery of the past 25 years off the coast of Brazil as it continues to shift its focus away from renewables and back to fossil fuels.

The Santos basin oil and gas discovery, which is located in deep waters, is the company’s 10th oil discovery of the year and could be its largest since its discovery at the Shah Deniz gasfield in Azerbaijan in 1999.

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UK strikes deal with private investors to build £38bn Sizewell C nuclear power plant

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Government’s deal with EDF, Centrica and other backers marks end of 15-year journey to win funding for project

The UK government has struck a deal worth more than £38bn with private investors to back Britain’s biggest nuclear project in a generation, at the Sizewell C site on the Suffolk coast.

The long-awaited multibillion-pound deal, which will be paid for through taxes and energy bills, gives the final go-ahead for construction of the nuclear project, which has almost doubled in cost from when it was first proposed.

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Spain’s People’s party hit by alleged multimillion cash-for-favours scandal

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Claims involve former finance minister Cristóbal Montoro and dealings with gas and other energy companies

Just when Spain’s opposition People’s party thought it had the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez on the ropes over a series of corruption scandals, it has been hit by a controversy of its own over alleged trafficking of influences by Cristóbal Montoro, the former finance minister.

It is alleged that Montoro established the “economic team”, a lawyer’s office linked to the finance ministry, which took kickbacks from gas and other energy companies in return for favourable government policy. It is claimed that between 2008 and 2015 Montoro and 27 other accused, among them senior treasury officials, were paid at least €11m (£9.5m) by big energy companies.

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EU risks breaking international law over Israel gas deal, say campaigners

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Europe accused of ‘trampling over Palestinian rights’ with deal linked to imports from pipeline running parallel to Gaza coast

The EU is “trampling over Palestinian rights” and risks breaching international law, over an energy deal signed with Israel to bring more gas to Europe, a campaign group has said.

A report by Global Witness shared exclusively with the Guardian concludes that the EU could be “complicit in breaches of international law” over a 2022 energy deal linked to gas imports from a pipeline said to traverse Palestinian waters. The NGO has called on the EU to cancel all gas imports linked to the East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) pipeline and terminate the 2022 deal, which was also signed with Egypt.

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