The Chief Executive of Scottish power supplier SSE has been appointed as the new President of an energy industry body.

Ian Marchant (pictured) has voluntarily taken the new role at the Energy Institute (EI) from Joan MacNaughton (pictured) for the next two years after a decade of working for SSE.

He will be stepping down from the top spot at SSE later this summer and the new position is sure to fill up some of his freed up schedule.

Mr Marchant said: “I have spent the last 21 years working in the energy industry and have grown to appreciate the skills, knowledge and experience of everyone in the sector and the key role that energy plays in our modern life. I am delighted to be able to continue this involvement through the Energy Institute, which develops and promotes that knowledge and those skills as well as good practice for the benefit of the industry and society as a whole.”

He is also the Senior Independent Director at the Aberdeen-based oil and energy company John Wood Group, Chairman of the Scotland 2020 Delivery Group, a member of Ofgem’s Environmental Advisory Group and the Energy Research Partnership.

The EI supports more than 16,000 individuals working in or studying energy and 250 energy companies worldwide.

Would you like to drive an electric car without having to fork out the cash? Do you wish you had the chance to trial one and see what the fuss is all about?

If your answer is yes, this new programme might just be the one for you.

Partly funded by Ofgem’s Low Carbon Network Fund, the £10 million ‘My Electric Car Avenue’ initiative is seeking 100 drivers to be part of a new trial that will look at ways of managing the impact of EVs on the local electricity grid. It aims to understand how groups of EVs in the same neighbourhood would have an impact on electricity networks using new software built by EA Technology.

Drivers must, however, be part of the same street or a close community that are on the same electricity feeder. Participants will get the EV (pictured) for only £100 per month and expenses such as road tax and insurance will be paid for. Charging the car overnight will cost between £2-£3, which lasts for up to 100 miles.

The trial will run for 18 months and users expected to save up to 85% on their monthly fuel bill.

Dave Roberts, Future Networks Director at EA Technology, Europe told ELN: “The electricity network has to be flexible enough to allow different loads and different consumers for different demands they’re going to have on the system. Whether it’s the new forms of electric vehicles or whether its photovoltaic that people are putting on to the network, that is all causing a change to what was the conventional or traditional way of power flowing from very large centralised power stations to the end user. We’re looking at how that network can be as flexible as it can without essentially digging up streets.”

He added: “Plug-in vehicles are seen as one of the key ways for the UK to significantly reduce its carbon dioxide emissions from road transport by 2050. We therefore need to ensure that the local electricity grid can support the recharging of greater numbers of electric vehicles.”

The project is a venture between EA Technology, Nissan, Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution Limited, Nissan, Fleetdrive Electric, Zero Carbon Futures and Northern Powergrid.

Energy supplier SSE has announced a rise in profits for the last 12 months due to the prolonged cold weather despite disruption to its services and a fine from regulators.

Its year-on-year profits rose 27.5%, with retail operating profits up from £321.6 million to £410.1 million and reported pre-tax profits of £1.4 billion from April 2012 up to the end of March this year, up 5.6% compared to the previous year.

Although the cold weather helped boost energy usage across UK households, SSE also received a record fine of £10.5 million from Ofgem for misleading potential customers and is expected to pay another £1.5 million in compensation to those who were affected.

Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of SSE said the firm had faced “two of its biggest issues” since it was formed in 1998.

He said: “The last week of March saw extreme snow falls and ice in the west of Scotland which inflicted unprecedented damage on the electricity network on Arran and Kintyre. Over 500 engineers and other employees from the company were deployed to help restore electricity supplies to households, businesses and other premises, working closely with a wide range of authorities and agencies.”

In response to the mis-selling, he added: “Like everyone else associated with SSE I have no hesitation in apologising unequivocally for the breaches that occurred but while the breaches were clearly wrong, the response has been absolutely right.”

The increase in gas and electricity consumption across the country also follows a 9% rise in energy bills for households. The energy company said gas and electricity usage went up 21% and 5% respectively. However, its customer numbers in Britain and Ireland fell by 80,000 to 9.47 million.

SSE warned there could be more price rises as it was facing additional costs of more than £80 per dual fuel customer this financial year.

The supplier said: “Unless there is a sustained reduction in prices in wholesale gas and electricity markets, it is highly likely that these additional costs will eventually have to be reflected in higher prices for household customers.”

Operating profits in the networks business also rose 18.9% to £876.1 million, however, profits in the power generation arm fell 16.2% to £509.5 million.

Consumer body Which? said such a large profit announcement would be a “slap in the face” for its customers.

Executive Director Richard Lloyd added: “Rising energy prices are consistently one of consumers top financial concerns and millions will be shocked by the size of their bill after such a cold winter. Bills will only be kept as low as possible if there is more effective competition, easier switching between suppliers and every tariff presented in a clear, consistent and simple way so people can easily spot the cheapest deal. Ofgem’s proposals, backed by the Prime Minister, don’t go far enough.”

British Gas and National Grid also announced huge increase in profits earlier this month.

Power supplier SSE has agreed to buy a wind farm project near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, in which it plans to invest around £200 million.

The energy company acquired the 33-turbine Dunmaglass project from Renewable Energy Systems Group (RES) and expects to begin full construction later this year. When completed, the wind farm will have an installed capacity of 99MW – with projected output expected to be more than 350GWh every year.

Jim Smith, Managing Director – Renewables at SSE said: “Dunmaglass is a well designed project which benefits from an excellent wind resource compared to typical onshore sites.

“As an established operator and responsible developer of renewable projects in the area, we have a long-standing commitment to the local community and businesses. We intend to honour the commitments already made in connection with this project and ensure that real economic and social benefits flow into the area.”

The project is expected to be completed in early 2016.

Energy supplier SSE has confirmed it will build a £30 million hydropower plant in Ross-shire in northern Scotland.

The 7.5MW Glasa scheme is expected to be completed by the end of 2015 and when fully operational will generate enough electricity to power around 10,000 homes.

The project was consented by Scottish Ministers in 2010 but SSE delayed the project as a result the UK Government’s decision to cut subsidies for hydro projects available through the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) system last year. However, the Scottish Government retained one of the ROC support level in September last year for new conventional hydro in Scotland.

Jim Smith, SSE’s Managing Director – Renewables said: “I believe that Hydro has an important role to play in the decarbonisation of our generation fleet and in providing a flexible and reliable source of electricity within a balanced energy mix.

“The support given by the Scottish Government in retaining the ROC banding for new hydro effectively led to SSE’s decision to proceed with the Glasa scheme. There are many more challenges to overcome in order to progress with larger projects such as Coire Glas and it is essential that policy makers recognise the benefits new pumped storage hydro will bring to the GB electricity market and ensure the right support mechanisms are in place.”

SSE is also proposing a 600MW pumped storage hydro scheme – Coire Glas – and is currently awaiting planning consent from Scottish Ministers.

Energy companies that failed to meet the Government’s efficiency targets by the end of last year have pledged to work towards achieving them.

DECC had set the targets under two schemes – the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) for measures such as insulation and new boilers and the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) for energy saving installations for the most vulnerable and low-income households.

British Gas, SSE, ScottishPower and Drax were among the companies that missed their targets, into which Ofgem has launched an investigation.

ScottishPower said it invested more than £400 million in the last five years, which has benefited around one million homes across the country and although it met its target for CERT, it fell behind on the CESP target.

Neil Clitheroe, CEO of ScottishPower Retail and Generation said: “We managed to achieve 70% of our target by the end of 2012 and had already identified and contracted work to achieve the remaining 30%. As at today, this 30% of measures has been installed in homes across the country, with approximately 20,000 families benefiting across our entire CESP programme.”

SSE claims it insulated nearly 500,000 cavity walls, almost 970,000 lofts and replaced around 30,000 boilers under the CERT scheme, however, it missed its CESP target by 10%. In a statement, the energy company said: “In relation to the Community Energy Saving Programme, SSE has contracts in place which, when completed, will deliver its obligated carbon savings.”

British Gas missed its CERT target by 2% and its CESP target by almost 40% – the worst out of all. However, the firm said it aims to meet the remaining targets this year.

The company said in a statement: “Under the CESP scheme we focused on improving homes in some 318 low-income communities with a high proportion of hard to treat housing, including measures such as solid wall insulation. However the particularly adverse weather conditions throughout winter prevented us from carrying out the improvements in the safest, most cost effective way. We expect to complete the remaining improvements by Summer 2013.”

Drax also failed to meet its targets as revealed by Ofgem, however, the firm said its competence lies in electricity generation.

A spokesman said: “As an independent electricity generator Drax has no direct relationship with domestic consumers and no expertise in delivering energy efficiency schemes to households so we outsourced this service but our chosen provider failed to deliver our obligation. We entered into further agreements with additional third parties in order to rectify this shortfall so far as was practicable, but for various reasons we were not able to fully comply by the end of the obligation period. We are assisting Ofgem in its investigation.”

Energy Secretary Ed Davey said he is “disappointed” that six energy firms did not meet the efficiency targets set by the Government last year.

British Gas, SSE and Scottish Power were among the companies that missed their targets as revealed by Ofgem today, which is launching an investigation into what happened.

Under two schemes launched by DECC – the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) and the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) – energy firms had to introduce measures such as insulation and also deliver energy saving installations to people in the most deprived areas in the UK.

According to Ofgem, both British Gas and SSE failed to meet their targets under either scheme and Scottish Power missed its CESP target. Electricity generation companies GDF Suez/IPM and Intergen also missed both targets. E.ON, EDF Energy and npower, however, met all their obligations under both targets.

British Gas missed its CERT target by 2% and its CESP target by almost 40% – the worst of the lot. SSE also missed CESP target by 10%.

Mr Davey said: “I am disappointed that under the old schemes some companies failed to meet their obligations. Ofgem will be conducting a thorough investigation and will take any necessary enforcement action. We are already acting through the Energy Bill to give Ofgem the teeth it needs in future to get compensation to those directly affected.”

However, Energy UK, the trade body for energy firms, said 99% of the targets that were met ensured millions of households had lower bills.

Chief Executive Angela Knight said: The tremendously hard work involved in the CERT and CESP programme means customers have saved hundreds of pounds off their energy bills. We look forward to having a constructive dialogue with Government and Ofgem on what worked well and what could be improved so that future programmes are properly planned and considered before they are brought in. Binding obligations must also be fair to all companies to allow them to deliver benefits to consumers in the most cost effective manner possible.”

Consumer group Which? supported Ofgem’s announcement that it would take action against the firms who haven’t met their targets.

Executive Director Richard Lloyd added: “Consumers pay for these schemes through their energy bills and so have a right to know how much they are costing. We want the Government to ensure that there is full transparency on the costs of the new Energy Company Obligation (ECO) so we can judge if they are delivering real value for money.”

The four bosses at energy supplier SSE who took home bonuses totalling £5.38million should hand them back and bring energy bills down.

That’s the demand of the Labour Party which has criticised the firm for awarding the bonuses over the same time SSE was fined a record £10.5million for misspelling to their customers.

The sum paid in bonuses is bigger than the compensation fund the supplier has set up to refund customers who were sold dodgy deals.

Labour’s Shadow Energy Minister, Tom Greatrex MP said: “Hard pressed families and pensioners struggling to pay their energy bills will not understand how SSE bosses can get away with paying themselves millions in bonuses for the period when they’ve been caught out ripping people off.

“The people responsible for this scandal should not be rewarded for failure. SSE’s top bosses should do the right thing and pay their bonuses back to the consumers who suffered.”

SSE responded to the criticism by suggesting “retail plays one part” of a director’s payment, adding in a statement: “The Board of SSE plc was advised of Ofgem’s formal statement of case against SSE in 2011. It took the issues raised by the case very seriously and as a result the company’s three Executive Directors received no payment in 2012 in respect of the corporate performance criterion of the company’s Annual Incentive Scheme. “

A Scottish energy provider wants to build a subsea cable so it can transmit renewable energy from the remote far north of Scotland to the rest of the country.

Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission – part of SSE – has asked Ofgem for permission to install the cable. It will connect to onshore substations at Spittal in Caithness and Blackhillock in Moray and will be able to transmit 1,200MW of electricity.

Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables added: “This is another important step forward in the delivery of an electricity grid for the challenges of the 21st century. The new subsea link is an important piece of the plan to increase output in the North of Scotland from renewable electricity, including our world-leading wave and tidal sector.”

A former SSE sales employee appears to have spilled the beans on the energy supplier’s dodgy practices when trying to get consumers to switch to their tariffs.

Ofgem yesterday slammed a £10.5 million fine, believed to be the largest of its kind to date, as it revealed the company’s “prolonged and extensive” mis-selling and published details of the “lies” told to consumers to get more people to switch to SSE, including cold calls, in-store and doorstep sales.

John, who claims he worked for SSE as part of its sales team but was made redundant last year, told BBC Radio 5 live about “Colleagues signing empty houses in order to earn commission, falsifying figures from bills, switching the usage to make savings, just down-right lies to trick customers to sign.”

The sales agents were allegedly also told to say “anything to get the deal” and were given tips on how to make a sale if they struggled: “They’d say to people that they were put on foreign tariff systems – like npower is owned by a German utility – and they’d say because they were British, we’re affiliated with the people that supply you so we’re cheaper.

“On the paper, they’d put the customer had been paying their bill quarterly when they’d been paying direct debit in order to make an extra saving.”

John added the fine was just a “drop in the ocean” considering the profits the energy firm made last year and believed the reason for stopping doorstep sales is because SSE “knew they were in hot water for what they’d done” and believed the fine was going to be less if they stopped the sales technique.

SSE said it “apologised unreservedly” for the breaches that were made and said it has been working for the last two years to transform its sales processes, including stopping doorstep selling and introducing a £5million compensation fund so customers who believe they may have lost money can claim it back.

A member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee said SSE have been “extremely successful” in lying to people and hoped the fine will make them change their sales processes.

Peter Lilley MP said: “If I were a shareholder, I’d be pretty appalled that nobody at a higher level… seems to have lost anything but the annual bonus and I’d want to know why not.”

He added the UK Select Committee have suggested that there should be a system or a mobile phone app where consumers can feed in their energy usage for the last year and find out which company tariff best suits the particular household.