Latest news with #energycompanies
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Households at risk of £12.7bn bill for switching off turbines on windy days
Households and businesses risk facing a £12.7bn-a-year bill to cover the cost of switching off wind turbines and solar farms under net zero plans. The grid operator has warned that the cost of paying energy firms to shut down renewables could surge by more than fivefold by the end of the decade. But it also said the Government could avoid the payments by abandoning its climate targets and prolonging the use of gas. Critics said that the latest net zero costs would come as a 'slap in the face to hard-pressed consumers struggling to pay their energy bills'. The payouts will be sparked by the huge expansion of intermittent renewable power sources under Mr Miliband's plan to decarbonise the energy grid. When the wind blows strongly and the sun shines, turbines and solar farms produce more electricity in a short period than the network can cope with. To stop the system being overwhelmed, potentially triggering widespread blackouts, the grid operator has to step in and tell firms to switch them off. Energy companies are then handed payments, known as 'constraint costs', to compensate them for the electricity those sites would have generated. Ministers said they would 'minimise' the increase in costs by fast-tracking new infrastructure such as pylons to connect offshore wind farms to the grid, despite opposition in areas where these are likely to be built. It comes after Ed Miliband was forced to increase subsidies for new wind farms to 'eye-watering' levels to get developers to build them. The Energy Secretary is already under pressure from No 10 over when his green electricity drive will deliver promised lower bills for households. In a new report the National Energy System Operator (NESO) warned that such subsidies could increase by more than fivefold by the end of the decade. It found that in the worst case scenario, compensation payouts could surge from £2.5bn a year at present to a high of £12.7bn a year in 2030. That would occur if the Government fails to force through any major upgrades to the grid, such as new pylon routes, over the next five years. In the report, the NESO said: 'Connection dates for new network build remain uncertain and changes to delivery timelines could significantly impact balancing costs, particularly around 2030. 'If no further network reinforcement takes place (current transmission network remains unchanged) constraint costs could peak at £12.7bn in 2030.' The NESO also projected a surge in the total rebalancing costs – including constraint costs – that taxpayers will face to fund the switch to net zero. If current policies work out, including 'strong consumer engagement' in reducing electricity usage, those total costs are still likely to rise by £8bn a year. The operator found that the best case net zero compliant scenario involved a rapid switch to hydrogen, reducing the financial burden to just over £6bn. But the cheapest option for households was a 'counterfactual' scenario in which Mr Miliband abandoned plans to phase out gas use and petrol cars. In that instance the NESO calculated that total rebalancing costs would rise only slightly, to just over £3bn a year at the end of the decade. The operator expects payouts to fall back after 2030, though only in the counterfactual scenario would they drop below current levels by 2035. Mike Foster, the chief executive of the Energy and Utilities Alliance, said the report showed that ministers should be focussing on a switch to hydrogen. He said: 'So-called constraint payments are a slap in the face to hard-pressed consumers struggling to pay their energy bills. 'The warning from the system operator, that they could reach £13bn by 2030, over £400 a year for the average bill, cannot be justified. 'What is worse, is all that surplus wind and solar power generation wasted could be used to produce green hydrogen – the holy grail in reaching net zero.' Octopus Energy, one of the country's leading providers, said that taxpayers have already forked out £700m on constraint costs this year. The business said that was already £250m more than at the same time last year, adding that the projected £8bn cost by 2030 was 'staggering'. It had previously calculated that subsidies would hit the £6bn mark by the end of the decade, at a cost of £200 per household in the UK. A spokesman for the net zero department said: 'These claims are fundamentally misleading, and wrongly assume that no network infrastructure will be built over the next five years. 'Through our clean power mission, we are working at pace to deliver the biggest upgrade in Great Britain's electricity network in decades, which will minimise constraint costs.'
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dynagas LNG Reports Strong Q1 Results With Rising Investor Appeal
Dynagas LNG Partners LP (NYSE:DLNG) is one of the . The company's share nears the 50-day moving average following better-than-predicted results in Q1 2025. A view of a bustling headquarter building, with large modern glass windows overlooking the city skyline. Greece-based company, Dynagas LNG Partners LP (NYSE:DLNG) owns and operates six liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with a collective capacity of approximately 914,000 m³. Generating cash flows from time-charter contracts, the company's vessels are employed under multi-year charters to major energy companies. This fee‑based model is also asset-light and hence allows for high utilization without exposing the business to commodity price risk. With its share price being $3.59 as of July 3, 2025, Dynagas LNG Partners LP (NYSE:DLNG) is nearing its 50-day moving average of $3.61, though the gap is wider in the case of the 200-day moving average of $4.08. These changes follow the Q1 2025 results, announced by the company on May 27, 2025. In its announcement, the company reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.30, which surpassed the analysts' consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.02. In terms of revenue as well, the company topped the analysts' estimated $36.96 million, reaching a value of $39.11 million. Additionally, the company has declared cash distributions for its Series A and B Preferred Units and common units for the quarter while fully redeeming its 8.75% Series B Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Units, with the redemption set for July 25, 2025. The move is expected to remove Series B Preferred Units from trading. The company offers a dividend yield of 5.57%, alongside a Buy rating, for investors seeking a low-priced and stable income MLP dividend stock. While we acknowledge the potential of DLNG as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and 10 Dividend Bargains Trading Below Insiders' Prices Disclosure. None. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Oil Rig Count Drops by 1; Crude Set for Back-to-Back Weekly Gains
The number of oil rigs in the US fell by one in the week through Friday, while crude prices were on
Washington Post
10-07-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Nvidia becomes first $4 trillion company at market close
Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia became on Thursday the first publicly traded company to close at a $4 trillion market capitalization. The California-based company was trading at $164.10 a share at market close, after briefly hitting the $4 trillion market capitalization milestone Wednesday morning. Nvidia has been at the forefront of an AI boom that has carried the stock market this year. Software, technology and energy companies — expected to benefit from AI's electricity needs — were among the top performers in the first six months of 2025, even as markets were buffeted by changing trade and tariff policies.
Forbes
08-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Taking A Structured Approach To Smart Operations In Energy And Chemicals
Competitive pressures to be a low-cost provider can cause many energy and chemicals companies to invest in smart operations capabilities enabled by machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). While this trend isn't new, uncertainty around global energy demand, coupled with the rapid development of Generative AI, is encouraging energy and chemicals companies to pick up the pace on AI adoption. Smart operations use cases, such as equipment failure prediction, advanced robotics inspections and surveillance, condition-based maintenance programs, and self-diagnostic equipment optimization, are quickly gaining traction as a way for energy and chemicals companies to do more with less. It is not uncommon for business units to get ahead of the curve by piloting or initiating proof of concepts on their own to keep up with AI advancements. But, when it comes to technology and transformation, rash, siloed decision making rarely produces the intended business outcomes and is often counterproductive. Various business units may end up competing with similar use cases already being trialed or fail to consider the requirements needed to scale the solution across the asset or the enterprise. Connecting the dots: One upgrade, many implications In smart operations, everything is interconnected. While many business functions are siloed, digital technologies don't have to be. An investment in a single digital upgrade can impact workers, business processes, and other technologies within a facility—and often across the enterprise. For example, a seemingly straightforward investment in drone surveillance to inspect equipment, as opposed to using on-site, manned crews, can have many implications. Consider the following: Whether the business objective is broad or targeted, achieving it will likely require a coordinated approach—one that takes into account process modifications and workforce considerations. Also, smart operational technology (OT) works hand-in-hand with IT which can require a robust foundation of computing, connectivity, data management, and cybersecurity. The investments needed to build that IT foundation, and ultimately to scale the OT and analytics that sit on top of it, will likely transcend business units and functional silos—and because of that, companies could need a structured way to think about them. Assessing five core dimensions: Facilities of the future framework Deloitte Global considered what smart operations may look like in a facility of the future, five core dimensions came into focus, which should be integrated in order to enable performance: Each of these dimensions, along with their inter-relationships, are detailed in the Deloitte Global Facility of the Future (FoF) Framework, a standardized tool for assessing current-state technologies, workflows, and organizational maturity levels. The framework also exposes current limitations and presents options for helping to address them. This helps enable business leaders to understand trade-offs and key considerations when determining how, when, and where to invest in IT and OT. Moreover, the structured approach afforded by the framework enables the exercise to be repeated across the portfolio of diverse assets (e.g., upstream, midstream, and downstream), allowing for robust investment strategies to emerge across the enterprise. Whether through the Deloitte Global FoF framework or others, leaders can benefit from taking a structured approach to investing in smart operations and to accelerating the convergence of IT and OT. The integration of these traditionally separate domains is important for energy and chemicals companies because it can lead to enhanced operational efficiency, improved decision-making, and increased competitiveness. Bringing IT and OT together enables real-time data sharing and analytics, which can help optimize processes, reduce downtime, and improve safety and compliance. Moving the needle: Don't forget the humans As much as smart operations, IT and OT convergence is about technology, it is much more; it also can require transformation across aspects of the technology delivery value chain ranging from vision and strategy to deployment, security, operations, and support and maintenance after it goes live. Successfully upgrading technology can also require winning the hearts and minds of internal stakeholders—it's just as important to invest in change management, upskilling and reskilling, and bringing people along the journey. In the end, a structured approach is needed to help address both the technological and human elements. It's about moving away from random acts of digital and toward an organized program of technology adoption and competency development so investments in smart operations can be scaled efficiently to create value and growth for organizations. Download Smart operations in Energy and Chemicals for more insights.
