Ministers are considering cutting the budget of Labour’s flagship state-owned energy company GB Energy. GB Energy was originally promised a budget of £8.3 billion over the current five-year duration of parliament. However, October’s budget only included £100 million for the company’s first two years. A Financial Times report warned that the upcoming June spending review will likely see cuts to the budget. The move comes amid mounting pressure on the UK government as it looks to push defence spending against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a weakening US commitment to NATO. This means that every part of the budget could be subject to a “zero-based review”, with sources warning that every previous spending commitment could be under review. According to people familiar with the discussions, the Treasury could cut £3.3bn from its budget, including the portion previously earmarked for low-interest loans to cover projects such as rooftop solar and shared-ownership wind projects. A government spokesperson said: “We are fully committed to GB Energy, which is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and to ensure homes are cheaper and cleaner to run.” However, neither the Treasury nor the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) have confirmed that GB Energy is still guaranteed the full £8.3bn of funding. While the exact remit of the company is still unknown, GB Energy was created to help accelerate the UK’s energy transition, most likely by taking stakes in projects such as offshore wind farms. However, the group’s chairman, Jurgen Maier, has previously said his long-term plan for the company is to create a UK Orsted. Maier’s claims that GB Energy could create 1,000 jobs have also been revised, with Maier clarifying that that figure would be over 20 years, with the next

In an EBW Analytics Group report sent to Rigzone on Friday by the EBW Analytics Group team, Eli Rubin, an energy analyst at the company, said bearish fundamentals are beginning to reassert influence over natural gas. “Yesterday’s bearish EIA [U.S. Energy Information Administration] storage report surprise is the latest in a cascade of bearish fundamental indicators over the past two weeks,” Rubin said in the report. “Mild March weather (with other widely followed meteorologists aligning with DTN’s warm forecast), weekly average natural gas production near year to date highs, LNG seasonally softening, and narrowing storage deficits suggest the potential for near to medium term price weakness,” Rubin added. Rubin highlighted in the report that the NYMEX front-month contract was up 46.8¢ since Friday “despite the bearish fundamental indicators”. “A loose supply/demand balance may be directed toward refilling storage deficits; storage east of the Rockies is 299 Bcf below five-year norms. Bullish price action in the face of soft near-term indicators remains impressive,” Rubin added. Rubin went on to note in the report that EBW Analytics Group “continue[s] to highlight a structurally bullish long-term outlook and a fundamentally loose spring”. “While upside price threats remain, receding momentum and soft fundamentals are increasing the likelihood of a near-term natural gas price retreat,” Rubin said. The EIA’s latest weekly natural gas storage report, which was released on March 6 and included data for the week ending February 28, stated that “working gas in storage was 1,760 billion cubic feet as of Friday, February 28, 2025, according to EIA estimates”. “This represents a net decrease of 80 billion cubic feet from the previous week. Stocks were 585 billion cubic feet less than last year at this time and 224 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 1,984 billion cubic feet,” it added. “At

Enbridge Inc. has earmarked an investment of up to CAD 2 billion ($1.39 billion) until 2028 for a Canada-United States liquids pipeline with a capacity of about 3 million barrels a day of crude oil. That will be spent on “further enhancing and sustaining reliability and efficiency aimed at ensuring the Mainline system continues to operate safely and at full capacity to support maximum throughput for years to come”, the Calgary, Canada-based energy transporter and gas utility said in an online statement. Mainline, which started service seven decades ago and has grown to be Canada’s biggest crude conveyor, carries production from the Canadian province of Alberta to eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest. Besides petroleum, it also transports refined products and natural gas liquids. Mainline stretches nearly 8,600 miles, according to Enbridge. The optimization will “support the growing need for ratable egress out of Alberta”, said chief executive Greg Ebel. Enbridge also announced additional investments in two pipelines: CAD 400 million for the BC Pipeline and CAD 100 million for the T15 project. The investment for the BC Pipeline is for the Birch Grove project under the pipeline’s T-North section. Expected to raise the BC Pipeline’s capacity by 179 million cubic feet per day to about 3.7 billion cubic feet a day by 2028, the Birch Grove project will provide additional egress for gas producers in northeastern British Columbia to access markets for their growing production, driven by the Montney formation. The investment for T15 phase 2 is meant for the installment of additional compression to double the original pipeline’s capacity. Expected to go onstream 2027, the expanded pipeline will deliver around 510 million cubic feet a day of natural gas to Duke Energy Corp.’s Roxboro plant in North Carolina as it transitions from coal to gas-fired generation. The investments come despite President Donald Trump imposing tariffs

Dive Brief: Chicago-based utility provider ComEd is offering $100 million in rebates to reduce the costs of installing electric vehicle charging hubs in homes, businesses and public sites around northern Illinois, the power company announced Feb. 6. The rebate program is part of a broader statewide initiative to promote widespread adoption of electric vehicles and get one million EVs on Illinois roads by 2030. “The ComEd rebates that support EV adoption and accelerate the expansion of charging infrastructure are pivotal in driving a sustainable future,” Megha Lakhchaura, state EV officer of Illinois, said in the announcement. “These initiatives will empower consumers to make cleaner choices and support the transition to zero emission transportation.” Dive Insight: ComEd’s rebate program is driven by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act passed by Illinois lawmakers and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in September 2021. In addition to pushing for EV adoption, it also required Illinois electric utilities to develop plans for rapid deployment of statewide charging infrastructure. The latest ComEd effort follows up its February 2024 program which provided $87 million in rebates to build out charging infrastructure in its service area, which includes the Chicago area and most of northern Illinois. The utility credits its initiative for helping to offset installation costs of nearly 4,000 residential and commercial charging Level 2 and Level 3 ports, as well as public and private charging stations. “ComEd is focused on ensuring that not only is the grid is equipped for increased electrification, but that our customers and communities have the support needed to navigate the transition to EVs and the benefits they provide for customers as well as the environment,” Melissa Washington, ComEd SVP of customer operations and strategic initiatives, said in the release. ComEd’s 2025 program is providing: $53 million in rebates for business and

Utilities and system operators are discovering new ways for artificial intelligence and machine learning to help meet reliability threats in the face of growing loads, utilities and analysts say. There has been an “explosion into public consciousness of generative AI models,” according to a 2024 Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, paper. The explosion has resulted in huge 2025 AI financial commitments like the $500 billion U.S. Stargate Project and the $206 billion European Union fund. And utilities are beginning to realize the new possibilities. “Utility executives who were skeptical of AI even five years ago are now using cloud computing, drones, and AI in innovative projects,” said Electric Power Research Institute Executive Director, AI and Quantum, Jeremy Renshaw. “Utilities rapid adoption may make what is impossible today standard operating practice in a few years.” Concerns remain that artificial intelligence and machine learning, or AI/ML, algorithms, could bypass human decision-making and cause the reliability failures they are intended to avoid. “But any company that has not taken its internal knowledge base into a generative AI model that can be queried as needed is not leveraging the data it has long paid to store,” said NVIDIA Senior Managing Director Marc Spieler. For now, humans will remain in the loop and AI/ML algorithms will allow better decision-making by making more, and more relevant, data available faster, he added. In real world demonstrations, utilities and software providers are using AI/ML algorithms to improve tasks as varied as nuclear power plant design and electric vehicle, or EV, charging. But utilities and regulators must face the conundrum of making proprietary data more accessible for the new digital intelligence to increase reliability and reduce customer costs while also protecting it.    The old renewed The power system has already put AI/ML algorithms to work in cybersecurity applications

Norway’s Energy Ministry has designated another area of the North Sea for application for licenses to explore the potential of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage. The acreage comprises defined blocks on the Norwegian side of the sea, upstream regulator the Norwegian Offshore Directorate said in an online statement. This is the eighth time acreage is being offered for CO2 storage exploration or exploitation on the Norwegian continental shelf, it noted. The application window for the latest acreage offer closes April 23. “In line with the regulations on transportation and storage of CO2 into subsea reservoirs on the continental shelf, the ministry normally expects to award an exploration license prior to awarding an exploitation license in a relevant area”, the Energy Ministry said separately. Norway has so far awarded 13 CO2 storage licenses: 12 for exploration and one for exploitation. Energy Minister Terje Aasland commented, “The purpose of allocating land is to be able to offer stakeholders in Europe large-scale CO2 storage on commercial terms”. Licensing for CO2 storage is part of Norwegian regulations passed December 2014 to support CO2 storage to mitigate climate change.  “Norway has great potential for storage on the continental shelf”, the ministry added. The Norwegian continental shelf holds a theoretical CO2 storage capacity of 80 billion metric tons, representing about 1,600 years of Norwegian CO2 emissions at current levels, according to a statement by the ministry April 30, 2024. In the latest awards two consortiums with Norway’s majority state-owned Equinor ASA won two exploration licenses in the North Sea. Equinor and London-based Harbour Energy PLC together won a permit straddling blocks 15/8, 15/9, 15/11 and 15/12. The permit, EXL012, lasts four years with three phases. Harbour Energy Norge AS holds a 60 percent stake as operator while Equinor Low Carbon Solution AS has 40 percent, according to a work