WhyWaitForever - London
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WhyWaitForever - London - Energy
This page contains the latest utilities news headlines and links to the energy companies in London, energy information sources and UK Paypoint locations. The energy market is very competitive. For visitors to London the standard electricity supply voltage is the same as in the rest the of United Kingdom that is 240 volts alternating current. WhyWaitForever - London - Energy Help lists the help and emergency telephone numbers for London and the surrounding area.
Public water supply in London is a monopoly activity. Tap water is not only fit to drink but is excellent and probably better than most of the bottled still varieties.
WhyWaitForever - London - Phone contains links to telephone information sources and telephone companies. You may want to review these at the same time.
Remember the new truth of business. It may be perception and not the actual reality but it seems to me that loyal long time customers in these days always get the worst deals ... check it out ... ask your supplier "what discount do I get for being with you for 5, 10, 20 or 40 years ?" ... do let WhyWaitForever know the answer you get back. We might publish here.
We are always very interested in any experiences you may have had with energy companies or even better energy insider gossip and speculation. These are very powerful global companies that we all need. Public opinion leverage through Parliament can still be a major influence.
Paying utility bills
Paypoint services are located in thousands of shops throughout the UK. Paypoint allows pre-payment keys and smartcards to be energised. Paypoint allows utility bills to be paid in these shops.
- Paypoint locations
The locations and opening times of all shops with Paypoint.
- Paypoint
The Paypoint organisation.
Single utility bill
- Servista
Single provider, single invoice and single bill for phone, gas, electricity and more. Accounts can be monitored online. Le Monde on 31 January 2000 reported that Courtney Sheets, Founder wanted to have 100,000 customers in the UK within a year. Servista originally used CPL Industries to supply gas and used Unit Energy to supply electricity. Unit Energy is the UK subsidary of the German company Unit Energy which is a major renewable electricity company. In January 2001 Servista received funding from a consortium including TXU - Europe . Eastern Energy a TXU Europe company now supply electricity and gas to Servista customers.
- Virgin Energy
Single online bill for electricity and gas. Accounts can be monitored online. Partnered (75% Virgin - 25 % LE) by London Electricity who in turn are owned by EdF which is owned by the French state. Confused (a little!) as this offering competes with the direct offering from London Electricity.
The above appear to be the leading on-line players though these and those listed below offer a variety of on-line accounts.
It is worth checking (as always) what exactly is meant by an online account. Common sense would dictate you could put in your meter reading, press the submit button, your account would be instantly updated, you are told how much time you have left before you need to pay and if you have run out of time you confirm you are happy to pay....maybe.....if it worked like this you could tackle all those tricky homework questions. "How much electricity does it take to boil an egg?".....if it worked like this you could maybe better budget and maybe use less energy inefficient appliances. We will see if we are dealing with smoke and mirrors or if we get something that is real progress.
Initial impressions are that if you access the Internet through a dial-up modem (as most residential energy buyers do) these sites can be very slow since the sites both contain many images and seem to need to continually access databases. Unfortunately the sites do not appear to have been designed with accessibility in mind. Use Bobby to check for yourselves. The old trick of turning off images and switching to text-only mode to speed things up fails since lots of vital header text is hidden in images.
On-line security appears perhaps to be an issue to be considered with more depth than has been previously. As reported in the computer press there have been concerns raised with PowerGen, Barclays, Bloomberg, Woolworths and Safeway. At WhyWaitForever we have credit and debit cards that we ONLY use for remote transactions. These are linked to closely controlled accounts with small limits for spending. We would avoid using our main credit and debit cards online.
Electricity and gas
It seems best to both shop around and change supplier frequently. A customer should sign up for a service with a notice of termination period as short as possible and with no penalty on termination.
- AEP
A major US energy company who previously owned a major part of Yorkshire Electricity and now owns.
- SEEBOARD
The major electricity supplier in the south east of England.
- Amerada
A US owned company with an Internet only gas tariff.
- British Gas
The large company which was previously the monopoly gas supplier now owned by the (rebranded) public company Centrica plc and which demerged it's infrastructure technology businesses as Lattice plc.
- EdF
The monopoly French company owned by the French state who owns.
- London Electricity
The major electricity supplier in London and the company that many still know as LEB which it was prior to privatisation in 1989.
- SWEB
The major electricity supplier in the south west cost of England.
- MidAmerican Energy Holdings
The US energy company who owns.
- Northern Electric & Gas
The major electricity supplier in the north of England.
- Innogy
A UK publicly owned company which was demerged from National Power in October 2000 which in turn was previously formed from the larger part of the privatisation of the CEGB and who now owns.
- Independent Energy
The previously UK publicly owned company which ran into a spot of billing bother and called in the receivers on 8 September 2000.
- Midlands
The dominant electricity supplier in the Midlands.
- NPower
The electricity supplier set up by National Power on privitisation.
- Yorkshire
The dominant electricity supplier in Yorkshire which was previously owned by AEP.
- Powergen
A UK publicly owned company formed by the smaller part of the privatisation of the CEGB who merged with US energy company LG&Energy who owns.
- East Midlands
The major electricity supplier in the east midlands.
- Powergen
The electricity and gas supplier who had spot of bother after revealing some details about some of it's online customers.
- Scottish and Southern
A UK publicly owned company who owns.
- Southern Electric
The major electricity supplier in the south coast of England.
- Scottish Hydro-Electric
The major electricity supplier in the north of Scotland.
- SWALEC
The major electricity supplier in South Wales.
- Scottish Power
A UK publicly owned company who owns.
- MANWEB
The major electricity supplier in Merseyside and North Wales.
- TXU
A major US energy company with headoffices in Texas who owns through their TXU - Europe subsidary the companies listed below. Many customer services functions have been outsourced to Vertex. Some online payment services are being handled by Girobank BillPay.
- 24seven
50 % of the major electricity distributor in London and East Anglia.
- Eastern Energy
The major electricity supplier in East Anglia and parts of London.
- Norweb
The major electricity supplier in the north west of England.
The following UK organisations develop and operate generating capacity.
- BNFL
The major UK nuclear fuels operator.
- International Power plc
A UK publicly owned company which was demerged from National Power in October 2000 which in turn was previously formed from the larger part of the privatisation of the CEGB. The company constructs and operates power plants.
The following two organisations are responsible for the bulk distribution of electricity and gas in the UK.
- National Grid
The major UK electricity distributor whose pylons despoil many country views.
- Transco
The major UK gas transporter whose gasometers despoil many town views.
History repeats. The inevitable tide of mutualisation which is just beginning in the water industry will sweep over the energy industry. Together with mutualisation there will be a myriad of small energy companies each with their own little CHP generator. Areas will suffer from uneven performance. Inefficiencies will be rife. An opposition will clamour for nationalisation to tackle the old and cold in low population density areas. The financial services industry will rake in yet another £20 billion in consultants fees reversing what they advised previously when they recommended mutualisation and reversing what they advised previous to that when they advised privatisation and ......
Outside London within the countries of Europe and elsewhere liberalisation (privatisation) continues at various speeds. The EU countries in electricity for example attempt to follow EU Directive .
Oil
For heating the fuel of choice is gas. The next most popular is electricity. Oil follows a distant third. WhyWaitForever - London - Cars contains links relevent to cars and petrol for cars.
- BP
The UK owned giant now "beyond petroleum" company.
- Exxon
Exxon / Mobil is the largest. It has the ESSO tiger brand.
- Shell
The Royal Dutch / Shell owned company.
- Texaco
The US owned major company.
- TotalFinaElf
The French owned recently merged company.
Combined Heat and Power,
Landfill and Biomass Gas
There are increasing numbers of district heating schemes that are being planned and implemented using CHP. Local Authorities and Housing Authorities are looking more favourably on these schemes.
- CHP
UK Association who promote the wider use of CHP systems.
- CLP Energy
Power generation from landfill gas.
- CPSL
Combined Power Systems who specialise as CHP providers.
- Fibrowatt
Power generation from poultry litter and biomass.
- LondonWaste
Recycling and energy from waste in north London.
- Organics
Power generation from landfill gas.
Solar Energy
Very very rarely on roofs of homes and offices a few elusive solar panels can be seen. London has the sunshine. Perhaps planning permission and building regulation consents inhibit.
- ISES
International Solar Energy Society.
- UK SES
UK Solar Energy Society.
- Solar Century
A UK company implementing solar energy systems.
- Solar Design
A UK supplier and installer of energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly heat & power systems.
Wind Power and Wave Power
Probably the closest this energy source will get to London is on the dangerous sand and mud flats in the River Thames Estuary.
- National Wind Power
National Wind Power owned by Innogy.
- BWEA
British Wind Energy Association.
- EWEA
European Wind Energy Association.
- Wavegen
Power generation from seas and oceans.
Water
Public water companies enjoy monopolies in their fiefdoms. When I was growing up near the river we were made aware of the dangers of flooding including which hills we would run to. Legging it to Primrose Hill always struck me as a tad tricky. The River Thames Barrier was to protect us and see us dry into the next Millenium. Well the new Millenium is here. Let us see if the storm drains and the river defences can protect us from the more variable weather to come. In some ways I look forward to the frost fayres and massive storms that have periodically crashed into these islands around every ninety years or so since Roman times. It used to be said 90 years good 90 years bad. I must go through old newspapers some time to see what evidence there is for this.
- RWE
A major German utilities company formerly known as Rheinish-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk who owns.
- Thames Water
The major public water supplier in London.
- Vivendi
A major French utilities company who owns.
- Three Valleys
A public water supplier in North London.
Advice and Education
- CREATE
Organisation for energy education in the UK.
- Datamonitor
A major groups that monitors a number of sectors including energy.
- Electricity.com
Global electricity news from a US perspective.
- FT Energy
Analysis from the leading UK financial information source.
- Gas.com
Global gas news from a US perspective.
- OFGEM
UK Government Office of Gas and Electricity Markets.
- OFWAT
UK Government Office of Water Services.
- Electricity Association
Links to electricity companies.
- US DOE EIA
US Government Energy Information, Department of Energy.
London and electricity
Michael Faraday - the father of electricity
In August 1878 the impressario John Hollingshead installed 6 lamps above his Gaiety Theatre. Londoners were given their first view of electric lighting.
In 1880, Richard D'Oyly Carte lit his new Savoy Theatre entirely with electricity. The Savoy Theatre was the new home for the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas. He used 824 Swan lamps lighting the stage and 370 lighting the auditorium.
In 1883 Sir Coutts Lindsay decided to use the new "smokeless" electricity to light his Grosvenor Gallery in New Bond Street, London. A neighbour said to him "Put down twice the machinery and produce twice the current you need, and let me have what you can spare".
A permanent generating station was built underneath the Gallery in a basement just 65 feet long by 21 feet wide. It supplied alternating current at 2,500 volts. The wires were suspended from poles on rooftops. Each customer had a transformer to reduce the supply to 100 volts.
In January 1886, Sir Coutts Lindsay appointed a 21 year old engineer Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti to take charge of the generating station. In 1887 147 electricity companies had been formed. Investors ploughed in £23 million - most of which was lost.
Sir Coutts Lindsey decision in 1883 to supply his neighbours with electricity led to the founding of the London Electric Supply Corporation. The Latin motto of the company was "LUX ET VIS" ("Light and Energy").
Corporate Identity
1887 - 1948 - London Electric Supply Corporation
1948 - 1989 - London Electricity Board (LEB)
1989 - today - London Electricity plc
Ownership
1989 - Owned by private and corporate shareholders
1997 - Owned by Entergy
1999 - Owned by EdF
In 2000 CE Londoners have a choice of around 30 companies from whom they can buy electricity (the suppliers). There are four companies (the distributors) who provide the majority of the wires that transmits the electricity to properties in London. There are around one hundred companies that generate most of the electricity that is used. Different companies, most based outside London, handle customer enquires. London Electricity uses a call centre in Sunderland. A number of different companies read meters on behalf of the various suppliers, distributors and generator. The situation is so complex and rapidly changing that there are independent energy advisors who try and track the best deals.
Privatisation
Mrs Thatcher's Government privatised the nationalised industries including those in London. The immediate effect was intense pressure to reduce the costs of London down to those of the rest of the country.
Large areas of London (especially the centre and major installations) had "four-way" security of supply. This meant if one path failed there were three others to take over. More new projects moved to two-way at best and in some case one-way in line with town and rural developments elsewhere. Of course materials are better understood now and the late Victorian engineering safety approach (instigated after major railway, shipping and bridge failures) of double and double again is excessive nevertheless building in engineering safety margins to cater for the once in a lifetime abnormal occurance would be very hard to justify.
Companies were forced to be more open especially in environmental matters. Oil filled cables and transformer sub-stations leaked oil into the London water table. The amount of oil leaked is equivalent to the amount needed to keep the oil reservoirs in the electrical switching equipment full. The water companies are under increasing pressure to ensure there water supplies exceed ever higher purity levels. Oil can be expensive to remove.
Closely linked to environmental concerns are health concerns and especially the effect on health of exposure to high intensity electric and magnetic fields. London is fortunate in that unsightly overhead cables are thankfully missing in most areas. Cables buried under a metre of earth seems intrinsically more safe that strung a few metres above ones head. Perception perhaps overrides reality.