There is widespread dissatisfaction with many of the privatised utilities. In the rail sector, despite gaining from much higher revenues from a doubling of demand and significantly higher real prices, performance has been subject to repeated criticisms...
The costs of renewables are falling, oil and gas prices have fallen back, and demand is soft. Why then are electricity prices being pushed up, rather than falling back?
The Hitachi decision has been a long time coming and is not at all surprising. It comes at a crossroads for the energy sector. Government has decided (rightly) to exit coal. It has tried and so far failed to back gas as an interim replacement...
Why does Centrica yield 9.3% and SSE 8.4%, whilst DRAX yields 3.2%? Why do United Utilities, Severn Trent and Pennon yield respectively 5.0%, 4.8% and 4.4%, and National Grid 5.8%, whilst BT yields 6.0% (all at the end of November 2018)? Why are they...
The Eagles song, Hotel California, has the memorable line: “you can check out any time you like. But you can never leave!”, which is a striking metaphor for the BREXIT negotiations. The full verse is:
Who owns the water companies? Are publicly quoted companies better than private equity and infrastructure owned companies? Does it really matter? All sorts of claims are being made, and the merit of the discussion is that it asks very good questions...
If the government decides to invest in further nuclear power station projects, it should obviously try to do so at minimum cost. The Secretary of State, Greg Clark, has suggested...
RPI-X regulation has had a good run. It was a deceptively simple idea: fix the prices and leave everything else to the companies and the markets to sort out how best to maximise profits by minimising costs. That simplicity was its great strength...
The water industry is in play - with the regulators, and with the politicians. Labour proposes to renationalise the water companies, and the government and the regulators are determined to toughen up the regulation to show that privatisation works for...
The water industry is in play - with the regulators, and with the politicians. Labour proposes to renationalise the water companies, and the government and the regulators are determined to toughen up the regulation to show that privatisation works for...
The challenge of climate change has left the oil companies on the back foot. What do they do? They are beholden to their shareholders, who look to their dividends and in many cases treat them as proxies for utilities. Those dividends are built on oil...
The challenge of climate change has left the oil companies on the back foot. What do they do? They are beholden to their shareholders, who look to their dividends and in many cases treat them as proxies for utilities. Those dividends are built on oil...
Independent review undertaken by Professor Dieter Helm CBE puts forward his proposals on how to reduce costs in the power system in the long-term whilst ensuring the UK meets its climate change targets.
Recent Publications
The EU has been developing its energy and climate policies since 1990, and over time the c...
The most interesting question to ask about oil prices is: why have they taken so long to f...
Whatever the approximate causes of the particular power cuts in mid-August this year, the ...