Welcome :: Our Year in Summary – Highlights of 2009
January
We signed a new three-year, £40m coal deal with ATH Resources for the supply of 800,000 tonnes of Scottish coal, strengthening our support for the local economy.
We launched an education project with Do-Be Ltd and North Lanarkshire Council, to inspire children to learn using MP4 technology.
We continued as principal sponsor of Celtic Connections, Scotland’s premier traditional music festival, which attracts audiences of 100,000 people and brings millions of pounds into Glasgow’s economy each year.
February
The ScottishPower Energy People Trust announced funding of £50,000 for a project to that will enable One Parent Families Scotland to help 6,000 vulnerable families out of fuel poverty.
We announced price cuts in gas and electricity prices, effective from March 2009.
March
We announced plans for a new 1,000 MW combined cycle gas turbine power station adjacent to our existing plant at Damhead Creek, Kent.
Our Energy Networks business completed a £7 million connection for a new windfarm in East Lothian that will strengthen the electricity network around Dunbar.
Our Energy Wholesale business became the first UK generator to be awarded PAS 55 certification for asset management.
April
The amount of money donated by the ScottishPower Energy People Trust to fuel poverty projects topped the £5 million mark.
We secured the largest energy supply contract ever to be awarded in Scotland from the Scottish Government.
Procurement Scotland awarded the £600 million contract that will see ScottishPower supply all of Scotland’s public sector buildings, hospitals and schools with green energy.
May
We announced the launch of our Carbon Capture trials at Longannet Power Station in Fife, using technology developed by Aker Clean Carbon of Norway. The results of a study published around the same time illustrated the vast storage potential for liquefied CO2 in rock formations under the Central North Sea.
Our parent company, IBERDROLA, confirmed its intention to establish a Centre of Excellence for CCS in the UK and announced funding for a Chair in CCS at the University of Edinburgh.
June
The ScottishPower Energy People Trust donated £12,000 to a project in Dundee to help 5,000 homeless people in Dundee set up home with starter packs of household items, making them less likely to run into difficulties with fuel bills.
We retained Platinum status in Business in the Community’s Corporate Responsibility Index for the third consecutive year.
We announced that we would be developing charging points for electric vehicles in Glasgow, working with a consortium including Allied Vehicles and Glasgow City Council.
July
Guy Jefferson, a director of our Energy Networks business in North Wales, was honoured by HRH The Prince of Wales when he was named the Prince’s Ambassador for Wales, in recognition of his commitment to leadership and responsible business.
Longannet Power Station welcomed a delegation from the China Power Investment Corporation, who travelled to Fife to find out more about Carbon Capture and Storage at the Fife station.
August
Our Carbon Capture and Storage project was strengthened when Shell and National Grid joined our consortium with Aker Clean Carbon, bringing expertise in offshore geological CO2 storage and the operation of high pressure pipelines to the partnership.
The ScottishPower Energy People Trust announced funding of £60,000 for a three-year Warmer Healthier Children project, run by National Energy Action and Energy Action Scotland. It will involve fuel poverty training for agencies that work with vulnerable people. 11,000 families are expected to benefit.
September
We became the first UK utility to complete a £50 million project to replace more than 320,000 prepayment meters with new key meter technology, across our service territories, including the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Liverpool.
We also launched a new plug-in PowerPod device that enables Pay As You Go customers to top up the credit on their meter via the Internet.
October
We won two awards and a commendation at the Scottish Arts & Business Awards for our work with the Edinburgh Book Festival and National Theatre of Scotland and our partnership with the Citizens Theatre.
Susan Deacon, a former Scottish Government Minister, was appointed as a Trustee of The IBERDROLA Foundation, which supports projects that contribute to the progress of scientific, social, cultural and educational endeavour.
The Foundation subsequently launched a Master and PhD scholarship programme in January 2010, for which graduates in the UK can apply.
November
We announced a major breakthrough in reducing the amount of energy required to separate the CO2 emissions from Longannet Power Station’s flue gases. Scientists and engineers working for ScottishPower and Aker Clean Carbon succeeded in reducing the energy requirement of the carbon capture process by about a third.
We also submitted our technical and commercial study to the Department of Energy and Climate Change as part of the UK Government’s competition to fund the country’s first commercial-scale CCS demonstration plant.
Our consortium, with Shell, National Grid and Aker Clean Carbon, is one of the two remaining participants in the competition, which had nine entrants originally.
December
We joined the 2020 Delivery Group on Climate Change, which aims to ensure the public and private sectors work together to deliver the Scottish Government’s climate change targets of a 42% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020.
The IBERDROLA Group made a commitment to bring its CO2 emissions to 20% below those of the European electricity sector by 2020.
Performance Highlights
- Leading the UK in the development of Carbon Capture and Storage technology
- Good progress on installation of clean coal technologies to reduce emissions of SO2 and NOx
- We exceeded our 2010 targets for emission reductions for CO2 and NOx per GWh electricity generated or controlled. We reduced CO2 by 61% against a 1999 baseline, compared with our target of 25% and reduced NOx by 73%, against a target of 50%. We were just short of our target for SO2 (80.7% reduction achieved, compared with our 85% target) due to a delay in commissioning FGD
- Ended 2009 having delivered 80% of our three-year target (2008-2011) for CO2 savings under the Carbon Emission Reduction Target
- ScottishPower Energy People Trust awarded grants totalling £1,958,328 to 29 fuel poverty projects administered by not-for-profit groups which will help 512,697 households and 556,761 individuals
- ScotishPower Green Energy Trust awarded £185,579 to help fund 15 small renewable energy projects. At December 2009 the Trust had awarded a total of £1,131,810 to 123 community projects
- Sales of green energy to commercial and industrial customers grew by 24% on 2008 to 2.1TWh
- First UK supplier to complete a two-year trial of Smart meters, which can encourage customers to save energy
- Started work on developing and testing smart grid technology in Glasgow’s East End as part of the Clyde Gateway regeneration project, which is linked to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games
- We progressed biodiversity action plans at 10 Energy Wholesale sites, mainly power stations – highlights included nesting Peregrines, Barn Owls and Osprey and increased populations of Great Crested Newts and Water Voles
- The number of employees taking part in training, the number of training events and the number of hours employees spent on online training courses all increased during 2009. The number of employees taking part in Community Based Development rose to 294 from 224 in 2008
- We contributed £3.6 million in community support activity, of which £1.4m was devoted to education and employability projects and £1.9 million was contributed to registered charitable organisations.
