Which? The consumer affairs group today launches the Big Switch campaign, designed to get the more than six in ten households who have never switched their energy supplier to consider doing so. Featured today in The Mirror and The Sun the campaign is encouraging consumers to submit their (non-binding) interest in order to collectively negotiate a better deal from the large energy suppliers.

The timing couldn’t be better and the Which? team deserve credit for launching in the middle of a cold snap when interest in energy prices is set to peak again. It is also just days into the term of new Secretary for Energy & Climate Change, Ed Davey, who began his Cabinet career by suggesting his focus would be on enabling consumers to get a better deal from their energy supplier. 

Which? Has long been a trusted consumer brand and I remember blogging last year about CBI research around the Green Deal that showed Which? to be the most trusted brand by consumers looking for advice. This campaign is in my mind overdue and I hope that it will be successful. I’ve signed up this morning and it was dead simple. Congratulations to Which? for kicking it off.

They will though face an uphill struggle in encouraging consumers to make the switch if the latest research from Ofgem is to be believed. In a report available on the regulator’s website they review attitudes to switching and new devices aimed at simplifying bills. It’s clear from the opening of the report though that the vast majority of energy users fall within a ‘disengaged’ category of people who don’t understand their bill, don’t appear to want to understand their bill and/or don’t feel there is much value in better understanding their bill because ultimately they do not trust that their time and interest will save them money. As I mentioned the Which? campaign faces and uphill struggle, but they have made the right start. I also just noticed the first tweets about this from @whichaction and @whichconvo. This is encouraging because a campaign like this is made for social networks. A shame though that Facebook hasn’t also been engaged by Which? I did look for their page to show an example of what they are doing, but perhaps they are waiting for the new Facebook timeline to launch on 29^th February.

Either way don’t delay, expressions of interest need to be logged on the campaign site by 31^st March.

So, it seems there will be an announcement tomorrow morning on whether the Energy Secretary Chris Huhne will be prosecuted. This bring to an end months of speculation over allegations that Huhne asked his former wife to take speeding points on his behalf.

Nick Clegg has already made it clear that if charged, Huhne will have to step down, prompting speculation on who will replace him on the energy and climate change brief. The quota of Liberal Democrat ministers will of course need to be maintained, narrowing it down somewhat. Junior business minister Ed Davey appears to be the front runner, with junior Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne and former Treasury Secretary David Laws also mentioned in passing.

The Coalition Government has been under fire recently for backsliding on environmental policy, with even key initiatives such as the Green Investment Bank, feed-in tariffs and the Green Deal falling victim to a strong Treasury keen to keep public spending to a minimum wherever possible.

Of the three contenders named above, two contributed to the Orange Book of 2004, widely regarded as the manifesto of the right wing of the Liberal Democrats. If tomorrow does mark the end of Chris Huhne’s cabinet career, all eyes will be on his successor for any hint that the ‘greenest government ever’ is not living up to its name…

Hill & Knowlton will be hosting a breakfast meeting next month (November 2nd) on the future for the UK nuclear industry.  

Organized by the British American Business Energy and Law Forum, the event will welcome an expert panel including Tim Yeo MP and Keith Parker from the Nuclear Industry Association.  Discussion will look at likely domestic demand in the decades ahead, the financial challenges inherent in major nuclear projects, the policy environment for the nuclear sector in a period of rising energy and carbon costs as well as renewed safety concerns about the sector in parts of Europe and Asia, and, the opportunities for UK businesses in overseas markets for developing and supporting nuclear projects.

If you wish to register, you can do so here, or contact the Energy and Industrials team in London.

So, discussions in the main hall were fairly unenlightening – was debate on the fringe any better?

Aside from the seeing the same faces, and hearing the same jokes four or five times over two days, there were some other recurring elements. The overriding message from pretty much all delegates was the need for clear and consistent signals from government – both in terms of policy and support levels – to investors. Sadly, this does not mean we have reached the happy utopia where industry and NGOs agree. For the former, this means a stable price for carbon over the long term, for the latter, this means long-term targets to cut emissions and deploy renewables that are as stringent as possible.

Discussions around renewables and green industries were much more informed and critical than in previous years, with the cost of meeting 2020 targets a particularly contentious issue – unsurprising given the general economic climate. Offshore wind was singled out for most criticism, with a great deal of suspicion expressed over whether the cost of deployment will come down as the government predicts. With regard to the green economy, the claim that it will create new jobs and help the UK through the global recession were also unpicked – that the jobs will not be new (but will simply be moved from other areas of the economy), and that there will necessarily be losers as well as winners as green industries grow.

Arguments around cost fed into one of the more interesting themes of discussion, namely the social ramifications of current energy policy. The cost of meeting 2020 targets is feeding directly into domestic bills, driving them upwards. Since electricity is a necessity, this hits the poorest  hardest, with the label ‘socially regressive’ applied repeatedly to the current strategy on renewables.  With this in mind, there were also calls for initiatives – particularly the Green Deal – to be targeted at the most vulnerable groups in society such as those living in social housing.

Energy Minister Charles Hendry and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker did their best to dispel the gloom, with repeated assurances that the UK is on the right track. Of course as ministers they don’t have much room to say anything to the contrary, but it is hard not to be swayed by two ministers so obviously on top of – and passionate about – their brief.

Sunday afternoon of party conference is when the host mayor welcomes delegates, a time when all but the party diehards are still travelling to the conference or checking in to their hotels.

The fact that the keynote speech on energy was slotted into the agenda yesterday afternoon tells you all you need to know about the focus of this year’s Conservative Party conference. The economic situation – both at home and across the eurozone – is what the party wants to be seen to be taking action on. Everything else comes a distant second.

Sandwiched between weekend pre-conference coverage, and anticipation of George Osborne’s speech today, it is not surprising that yesterday’s speech took up few column inches – The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph being the notable exceptions.

So, what did Energy Minister Charles Hendry have to say? And more to the point, was any of it new? Again we heard about how much generating capacity is due to close in the next decade, and about how much investment is needed in energy infrastructure. And again we heard about a new generation of (unsubsidised) nuclear power stations, and the jobs this would create.

In fact the creation of thousands of new green jobs, and revitalisation of former industrial cities, was a theme running throughout the speech, coming up in discussion of offshore wind and carbon capture. The fact that these cities are exactly the Labour heartlands that the Conservatives will need to make inroads into to win the next general election is mere coincidence…

In all then, nothing we haven’t heard before. Perhaps the fringe is where the fresh ideas are – watch this space…

Rob Foyle will be taking to the stage during September at the inaugural ‘Future Communications & PR for the Energy Sector 2011′ event at the Grange Hotel in London.

Joining a panel that will debate the question, ‘is the integration of corporate PR, marketing and political comms a reality?’, Rob will be joined by panelists from EDF Energy and Gazprom Marketing and Trading Ltd and other agencies that shall remain nameless.

Rob’s participation is yet to be announced by the organisers (you read it hear first!), but his experience of managing campaigns across the world on behalf of clients will help to provide an international flavour to his contributions to the discussion.

For more information about the event get in touch, clients receive a special rate to attend, so it’s worth it!

It has been an age since my last blog and on the energy front things have been busy. The Statoil campaign in the UK has kicked into gear, we’ve had the Electricity Market Reform, release of strategic oil reserves (good blog from Platts yesterday), increased retail energy prices in the UK and continued debate about the future of nuclear in different parts of the world.

In the world of media too things have changed. Of course we no longer have the News of the World on our newsstands, but we have a new social network to play with in Google+ and apparently there are already 10 million users (for those interested I’m at http://gplus.to/chrispratt). We also had the launch of the Huffington Post in the UK, and the subsequent debate in the journalist twittersphere about unpaid content and commentary.

Personally speaking the pace of things at work and at home (moving into new house) has precluded much else, but the train journey has allowed me to make a start on the new book by Tom Bergin , Spills and Spin, about BP’s Macondo spill and the changes at BP under Lord Browne and Tony Hayward, which according to Bergin had created an environment more comfortable with risk than perhaps an oil company should be. It’s an interesting perspective and I look forward to the week off next week that will allow me some time to finish the book.

I’m also looking forward to reading more about the fallout from the EMR. One thing is clear about the reforms and that is that energy prices will increase to foot the bill for the investment in our national infrastructure. What the bill will be and how much the average energy consumer will have to pay, nevermind the extent to which heavy industry can afford to stay in the UK, will be the subject of much debate as the Government starts to provide the clarity required to make the calculations. From a communications perspective therefore much remains to be done as consumer groups, businesses, energy companies and Government line up for what will be a time of challenging messages. Something to think about on the beach? Probably not, but maybe when I get back.

In the first week of June, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that we are entering a ‘golden age of gas’ which resulted in a flurry of articles calling into question whether or not the IEA was getting ahead of itself in its rosy forecast of the future of natural gas.

While it certainly isn’t the antidote to climate change in itself, the fact is, natural gas has and will continue to be a vital mainstay of the global energy mix – one that will pave the way to a cleaner future for energy.

The natural gas market has shown continued innovations in production and supply allowing for greater global reach, especially to key markets such as the Far East.

Case in point – you might have already seen in the news that Qatar and Royal Dutch Shell have sold their first shipment of Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) on 13 July from Qatar’s Pearl GTL plant in Ras Laffan, which when complete will be the largest of its kind in the world. The Pearl plant is a joint initiative by Qatar Petroleum and Shell which will process three billion barrels-of-oil-equivalent over its lifetime from the North Field. The technology involves converting natural gas into liquids such as gasoline or diesel fuel. Extensive testing showed that GTL is a cleaner motor fuel than diesel with lower carbon emissions. Between GTL and LNG, natural gas is becoming more and more transportable – decreasing reliance on pipelines and allowing for greater access to the ‘clean fossil fuel’.

Against this backdrop, our client Statoil launched a campaign on 7 June to get clearer signals from the UK government on the role that natural gas will play in the UK’s future energy mix. The campaign comes ahead of the Electricity Market Reform (EMR) package expected next month. Statoil wants greater clarity regarding the UK’s policy towards natural gas, reminding us that the cost of future energy bills in the UK could rise significantly if the energy mix is artificially skewed against natural gas in favour of subsidised alternatives such as nuclear and renewable energy.

Natural gas could be an important bridge between nuclear power today, and a future in which renewable energy sources dominate the energy-mix; I think it’s robust enough to visibly decrease our reliance on oil and coal. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing in July what the Government’s stance is on the long-term role of natural gas in the UK.

As the summer festivals approach and we get all geared up for the season, this year we should think about the quirky bits and pieces we can take along to do our bit for the environment. 

Eco Ark is a good starting point – the family run company provides a variety of innovative products which lead to a greener existence.

My favourite must be the Voltaic Converter Solar Backpack which has the ability to charge all handheld electronics with its 4 Watts of power (ie. 1 hour of sunshine = 3 hours of phone time). Not too bad if you ask me…

Or if you really wanted to make a statement then check out the environmentally friendly tents from Green Outdoors.

Obviously energy efficiency is no longer limited to the office and the home. With all these new products about we can be seen to ‘be green’ even as we head to this summer’s big parties…you really can’t go wrong here!

Last month, we held an event in conjunction with Scottish Enterprise, looking at the extent to which the UK offshore industry is engaged in various issues on the agenda in Brussels, such as moves by the European Commission  to tighten safety regulations for offshore drilling.

For those that weren’t able to make it up to Aberdeen we are organising a follow-up workshop, presented again by Luc Werring from our Brussels office, in London on Wednesday June 22nd.

If you would like more information on the event, or to attend, please get in touch through the ‘E-mail us’ button in the top-right of the page.

I am very much looking forward to meeting some of you and hearing your thoughts and concerns on various regulatory and reputational issues.