The world’s largest operational offshore wind farm has been opened off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The £1 billion Walney wind farm is a joint venture between DONG Energy (50.1%), SSE (25.1%) and OPW (24.8%). With 102 turbines and a total capacity of 367.2 MW, Walney can supply up to 320,000 households a year with renewable power.

The wind farm, which combines the Walney 1 and 2 projects, has already set a number of industry records, and will create approximately 60 jobs at its new operations centre in Barrow-in-Furness.

DONG Energy managed to construct Walney 2 in the fastest ever time for an offshore wind project, with all turbines and cables installed in just five months and 13 days, setting a record in the sector. It marks an important step for the industry, and DONG Energy’s strong drive towards further industrialising the industry.

Walney is also ground-breaking in its financing, being the first UK offshore wind farm to receive investment from a pension fund service provider and an equity fund before it had even been built. OPW, a consortium of the Dutch pension fund service provider PGGM and Ampere Equity Fund, took a 24.8 per cent stake in the project in December 2010.

The partnership with PGGM and Ampere Equity Fund, which is managed by Triodos Bank’s subsidiary Triodos Investment Management, clearly demonstrates that institutional investors are willing to invest in well-structured offshore wind projects alongside market leading industry participants. DONG Energy has around 30 per cent of the offshore wind market throughout Europe. Walney is made up of 102 Siemens Wind Power turbines each with a capacity of 3.6 MW.

SSE, through its wholly owned SSE Ventures business, has sold a portfolio of cleantech investments to Scottish Equity Partners’ new Environmental Energies Fund. As part of the deal, SSE Ventures has become a major partner in the new fund.

The new Environmental Energies Fund (EEF) has acquired nine investments from the SSE Ventures portfolio, all of which are market leaders from across the clean energy spectrum. The fund will have substantial fresh capital available for investment in the portfolio and also has agreement to add up to five further SSE investments to the portfolio in future.

“SEP have a strong track record in helping innovative companies grow and mature,” says SSE’s finance director, Gregor Alexander.  “We continue to believe that cleantech companies have an important role to play in developing new technologies and that is why we continue to be involved as a major partner in the EEF.”

Four million complaints were received last year by the UK’s ‘big six’ energy companies – British Gas, EDF Energy, Eon, Npower, SSE and Scottish Power – and tens of thousands were still unresolved after eight weeks, according to a new Which? investigation. A Which? survey reveals that 40% have had a problem with a gas and electricity company in the last two years – a large number for an industry where very little should go wrong with the product itself.

The most common problems people reported were billing and meter problems, including mistakes on bills, inaccurate meter readings and missing bills. But almost a quarter (23%) of those who had a problem with an energy supplier did nothing about it.

If consumers don’t complain, there is no chance for things to be put right. Thousands could be missing out on compensation from the energy ombudsman – the next port of call for complaints not satisfactorily dealt with by energy suppliers – and, according to Which? research, the amount of unclaimed payments could be as much as £4 million a year.

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd says: “These findings reveal shockingly high levels of complaints and low levels of customer satisfaction in the energy industry, at a time when domestic bills have gone through the roof. Ofgem, the regulator, should publish the truth about the full level of complaints in this essential service. Energy suppliers should be held publicly accountable, on a regular basis, for putting right the problems their customers are reporting.”

British Gas and Npower Fined

The news comes shortly after Npower and British Gas were fined by the energy watchdog Ofgem for mishandling complaints. British Gas was fined £2.5 million and Npower £2 million. This represents only 0.02% of British Gas’s turnover in 2010. Both companies will have to pay their penalty by 22 February 2012.

These findings come alongside the results of the 2012 Which? Switch satisfaction survey, which reveals the ‘best and worst energy companies’ according to their customers, in the biggest publicly available survey of its kind.

The Which? Switch 2012 satisfaction survey reveals the best and worst energy suppliers from a survey of over 8,000 people. Good Energy tops the table with the highest customer score (84%), followed by Utility Warehouse (78%) and Ecotricity (77%). Of the larger companies, SSE comes first with a customer score of 51%, and Npower comes last with only 41%.

UK energy group SSE has unveiled details of a new Scotland Sustainable Energy fund that could be worth more than £90 million over 25 years if it is able to realise its ambitions for new onshore wind farms in Scotland. The fund will be available for organisations promoting skills development, community energy schemes and improving the built and natural environment. The fund is in addition to the £150 million SSE has already committed to support community projects in Scotland over the 25-year projected lifetime of the company’s existing and planned wind farms.

SSE’s current policy for awarding community funds is based on the installed capacity of its onshore wind farms under construction or in operation and is worth up to £2,500 per annum for each megawatt of generation capacity.

The new commitment will increase the value of SSE’s investment to the equivalent of £5,000 per megawatt for all new onshore wind farms constructed in Scotland from 1st January 2012. This will comprise £2,500 for local community initiatives and £2,500 per megawatt for the new Scotland Sustainable Energy fund.

SSE’s 76MW Strathy North Wind Farm, which was recently consented by Scottish Ministers, will be the first wind farm to benefit from the additional funding, providing a total lifetime fund value of £9.5 million. SSE intends that half of this will be ring-fenced for the community hosting the wind farm and the remainder used to support community projects across the Highland region.

Serving around 10 million customer accounts for electricity, gas and other home services; SSE is one of the UK’s ‘big six’ enetgy companies. It has over 11,000 megawatts of capacity for generating electricity in power stations, hydro electric schemes and wind farms.

The UK’s largest carbon capture (CC) pilot plant, built at the coal-fired power station at Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire and owned and operated by energy group SSE, has been officially opened. The project, which is a collaboration between SSE, Doosan Power Systems and Vattenfall, is the first of its size to be integrated into a live power plant in the UK. As such, this represents a major step forward in proving that carbon capture technology is viable on a commercial scale.

The plant bridges the gap between the various pilot-scale trials that are under way and the commercial-scale demonstration projects envisaged by the UK government, as it captures 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide per day from the equivalent five megawatts (MW) of coal-fired power generating capacity.

“This flagship test programme at Ferrybridge represents an important milestone in the UK’s plans to develop CCS and provides a critical bridge to meeting our long term aim of cost competitive CCS deployment by the 2020s,” says Chris Huhne MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. “This is the first operating carbon capture plant attached to a power station at this scale in the UK and has benefited from more than £6 million in public money. This investment will be invaluable to the wider commercial scale deployment of CCS by reducing uncertainty, driving down costs and developing the UK supply chain and skills.”

SSE chief executive, Ian Marchant comments: “The development of viable carbon capture technology is central to the UK’s climate change and energy security objectives. We believe projects such as this will be absolutely crucial in establishing when and how the technology can be developed. What we have here today at Ferrybridge will provide an invaluable source of reference and learning for the industry as a whole.

Industry regulators such as the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive will also be able to learn from the project, enabling the UK to move closer to widespread deployment of CCS.

UK businesses are reaping the rewards of an extremely competitive energy market, as new market entrants and specialist small providers drive up standards and lower costs, according to latest research from independent analyst, Datamonitor.

The research, based on interviews with 2,000 major energy using businesses (companies spending over £50,000 per year on either gas or power), found that suppliers are using a variety of strategies to attract customers in the extremely competitive market. These strategies include extremely competitive propositions from the likes of Gazprom, to exceptional service as seen from SmartestEnergy, Haven Power and Shell Gas Direct.

“Small suppliers have entered the market and have been able to set new benchmarks in service delivery by focusing on a small customer base and being able to react quickly to customer demands,” comments David Mayne, energy market analyst at Datamonitor. “As a result, small suppliers Smartestenergy and Haven Power achieved first and second place respectively for highest customer satisfaction in 2010. Gas specialist Shell Gas Direct has topped the rankings for highest customer satisfaction for a gas supplier since 2008.”

He continues: “This has had a knock-on effect, with larger more established players adamant that they are not going to be left behind, and striving to improve their performance. SSE and EDF Energy, in third and fourth place in the rankings table, have shown that this is possible. This is only good news for the end user.”

SSE Generation, the power generating business of SSE, the second largest electricity generator across the UK and Ireland, has signed a comprehensive and flexible service agreement with GE. The ten years contract covers SSE’s fleet of 127 GE wind turbines in operation across the UK and Ireland.

The new agreement will provide a wide range of technical support services for SSE’s GE wind turbines, allowing SSE the flexibility to customise technical support services on a site by site basis.

“With the expansion of the onshore wind generation fleet we needed new ideas and strategies to manage our fleet while continuing to manage safety, long term integrity and costs,” said Jeremy Williamson, onshore wind generation manager of SSE Generation.  “GE’s solution provides us with an unprecedented level of service flexibility for our fleet of installed GE wind turbines.”  

All of the wind turbines covered under the new service agreement are GE 1.5-megawatt units, the most widely deployed wind turbines in the global wind industry with more than 14,000 installed worldwide. The agreement includes GE’s highly-specialised technology for remote monitoring, trouble shooting, and support as well as routine maintenance. In addition, SSE will benefit from GE’s wind turbine upgrades, parts, and access to state-of-the-art training from GE’s Energy Learning Center.

“Our agreement with SSE Generation demonstrates our ability to allow our customers to customise their preferred level of support, putting us at the forefront of the wind industry,” says Diarmaid Mulholland, wind services general manager for GE’s renewable energy business. “We believe this approach maximizes the resources and the expertise that can be applied toward ensuring the long-term, reliable and profitable operation of our wind turbines.”

SSE owns approximately 10,700 megawatts of electricity generation capacity. This includes 4,500 megawatts of gas and oil fired capacity, 4,000 megawatts of coal fired capacity, and more than 2,200 megawatts of renewable energy capacity.

Finavera Renewables has agreed to the co-development of the 105 megawatt Cloosh Valley Wind Project in County Galway with SSE Renewables (Ireland), the Irish renewables development division of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE). The move follows the sale of a majority stake in Finavera’s wholly owned Gate 3 grid connection from Eirgrid to SSE for Eur8.4 million. SSE already owns Irish wind energy company Airtricityafter acquiring the Irish business for £1.1b in 2008..

Finavera Renewables has signed a co-development agreement with SSE and Coillte, the State-owned commercial forestry and renewables company, to jointly develop the Cloosh Valley project. Coillte is the landowner at the project site and has been a development partner on the project with Finavera since 2009. Finavera will retain a 10% equity interest in the project and will participate in all project development functions and activities.

The Cloosh Valley Wind Project has nameplate capacity of up to 105MW and has received a Gate 3 Node Assignment from Eirgrid. The wind resource at the Cloosh Valley project is among the strongest in Europe. The project capacity of 105MW would exceed all current onshore wind farms in Ireland and would provide enough electricity for approximately 68,000 homes.

“SSE brings significant development, construction, and operating experience to this project. The strength of the development team now behind the Cloosh Valley project illustrates the value of this project, which has some of the best available wind resources in Europe. We now have the right team and a clear path to construction and full operation of the Cloosh Valley project,” explains Jason Bak, chief executive of Finavera Renewables.

SSE is one of the UK and Ireland’s leading energy companies. It is involved in the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity; energy trading; the development of major renewable energy projects; the extraction, storage, distribution and supply of gas; electrical and utility contracting; and telecoms. SSE owns just over 11,300MW of electricity generation capacity, including its share of joint ventures and associates. This makes it the second largest electricity generator across the UK and Ireland. The capacity comprises 4,590MW of gas- and oil-fired capacity, 4,370MW of coal-fired capacity (with biomass ‘co-firing’ capability), and 2,370MW of renewable capacity.