legislation and regulation

16 Nov 23

Steel industry urges government to cut electricity prices to stay competitive

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Trade body UK Steel has launched a report that finds a “vast chasm” between UK energy prices for industry and those in Europe. It found that steelmakers in the UK pay nearly two times as much as those in Germany and France, partly due to higher grid connection costs in…

27 Oct 23

Major revamp of energy rules targets net zero and boosts competition

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The Energy Act 2023 will introduce a new tender process for electricity networks that the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said will see consumers save up to £1bn off their energy bills by 2050. A new regime for overseeing mergers in the energy sector will also be…

25 Oct 23

Multi-year queue to connect to energy grid hampers UK’s net zero efforts

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

A report from Centrica found that the UK’s existing queue for Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC) – the queue for connecting new projects to the grid – is massively oversubscribed, and the problem has become more severe in the last few years. Some of the new energy projects are being blocked…

13 Oct 23

Households face higher bills due to relaxation of climate targets, experts say

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Last month, Sunak reduced ambitions on a raft of green policies, including pushing back the ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035; phasing out 80 per cent of new gas boilers, rather than all of them, by 2035; delaying the ban on off-grid…

04 Sep 23

Onshore wind farm ban set to be overturned

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The UK government is reportedly set to change the laws that ban the construction of new onshore wind farms as a result of internal party pressures. The rule changes follow the proposal of an amendment to the Energy Bill – set to be voted on by the government on Tuesday…

08 Aug 23

Ofgem urged to scrap energy price cap to boost market competition

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The EPC was originally brought in under Theresa May’s government as a time-limited intervention to protect customers from price-gouging from energy firms. But a report from the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), a centre-right think tank, said that since the 2022 energy crisis began, the EPC now functions as the…

12 Jun 23

Energy efficiency improvements restricted to wealthy homeowners, Unison says

Geotechnical & Environmental

The union said that without a major rethink on financial help and incentives, the UK faces “painfully slow” progress on green homes and won’t meet its 2050 net-zero target. The report found that short-term policies and a complex array of “ever-changing support packages” have left millions of households with insufficient…

07 Jun 23

‘Fundamental’ revamp of planning system needed for UK to meet net zero

Geotechnical & Environmental

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), at the current rate of development it would take 4,700 years for England to reach the onshore wind capacity called for by government advisers. Progress in England was stalled in 2015 when planning laws were changed to make it more difficult…

06 Jun 23

AR app to help blind passengers navigate stations receives share of £2m funding

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The Department for Transport has announced a £1.96m fund to improve accessibility in the UK’s transport systems. Makesense Technology is receiving part of the fund to create an app that uses augmented reality to create bespoke walking routes to help visually impaired travellers get around railway stations. Other projects include…

06 Jun 23

SSE fined nearly £10m for breaching its generation licence

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The firm was found to have secured “excessive payments” from National Grid ESO in exchange for reducing output at Foyers pumped storage power station during periods of what is known as ‘transmission constraint’. When constraints on the electricity transmission system exist, the ESO will take action to manage flows across…