Page 7 - Gi_November2021

industry & government news

UK DOES NOT BACK NORD STREAM 2 OR NEED

LONG-TERM GAS STORAGE, SAYS MINISTER

Stream 2, which awaits regulatory
clearance, while playing down its
significance in the UK context,
according to S&P Global Platts.
“We are not exposed to Russian
supply as many of our EU counterparts
are,” he said.
Nor was he convinced by calls for
more domestic gas storage.
“The gas price has quadrupled
in the last six months. We have to
prepare for longer term high prices
... but I think closure of Rough
[storage facility in 2017] is a bit of a
red herring,” Kwarteng told the BEIS
Committee in a hearing.
Supply chains were being squeezed
by the rise in gas prices, with the role of
storage “not particularly relevant to the
problem we are facing”, he said.
Depending on who owned the
storage, the higher the gas price the
more incentive there was for the
storage owner to sell the gas in the open
market, he said.
Joanna Whittington, Director
General for Energy and Security at the
Department for BEIS, said the UK used
its gas storage assets for short-term
operational balancing.
“What we really rely on [for longer-
BEIS SECRETARY KWASI KWARTENG SAYS THE term security] is a very diverse
UK DOES NOT NEED MORE GAS STORAGE range of supply – UK and Norwegian
Continental Shelf production, three
THE UK DOES NOT support Russia’s Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng told LNG facilities, and interconnections
Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project to a parliamentary committee. to Belgium and the Netherlands. Our
Germany and does not need its own Having initially said otherwise, need for storage is not the same as for
long-term storage facility, UK Secretary Kwarteng clarified his position saying those that do not have that diversity,”
of State for Business, Energy and the UK was not supportive of Nord Whittington told the panel.

GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES £270M HEAT NETWORK

FUND FOR LOW CARBON TECHNOLOGIES

MINISTERS HAVE ANNOUNCED a the government’s Heat Networks
£270 million Green Heat Network Investment Project (HNIP), which has
Fund as part of a bid to heat more provided more than £165 million of
homes from green sources such as the funding for schemes across England
London Underground, reports Inside and Wales since 2018.
Housing. Heat networks are a type of system
For the first time, the government’s where heat is distributed to individual
heat network pot will only fund homes or workplaces from a central
heat networks using low carbon source via pipes. Such a system avoids
technologies such as heat pumps, the need for homes to have their
solar and geothermal energy. own energy-intensive source of heat
The fund is the successor to generation, such as gas boilers. THE FUNDING IS ONLY OPEN TO HEAT NETWORKS
THAT USE LOW CARBON TECHNOLOGIES

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News.indd 2 14/10/2021 15:12