Ofgem is to kick off the recruitment process for a new chair after David Gray announced his intent to retire next year.

Battery storage and smart technologies are to be rolled out to homes in the Irish town of Dingle as part of a new trial to test their potential to support the use of variable renewable energy supply resources and smart connection to the Irish electricity grid.

Good Energy has signed up Europe’s largest smart charging solutions provider for electric vehicles as it prepares to launch a new proposition for its business and domestic customers.

A large group of major multinational companies has urged European member states to support a renewable energy target of at least 35% by 2030.

Distribution network operators (DNOs) should be able to own and operate a minimal amount of battery storage capacity in certain cases, and be able to compete in the ancillary services market to fund the projects, according to Northern Powergrid’s head of regulation and strategy.

Flexitricity is bidding to take end users into National Grid’s Balancing Mechanism by seeking a supply licence.

An official from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has pushed back against claims that “question marks” hang over government decarbonisation plans, stating that good progress had been made.

Ofgem’s head of networks has reiterated the regulator’s warning to operator companies that they should expect tougher price controls after pointing to “double digit returns” deemed too high within current market conditions.

Changes to the de-rating factors for battery storage projects competing in the Capacity Market (CM) will push the sector towards longer-duration batteries, while potentially sparking a shift towards energy arbitrage as a source of revenue for shorter duration applications.