Battery Recycling (Hansard, 19 November 2002)

§ Mr. Wilson

DTI officials have met European Commission officials and key battery organisations such as the European Portable Battery Association and collect NiCad to discuss the recycling of nickel cadmium batteries. DTI officials have also met SAFT, a battery manufacturer that runs the Bat-Re-Back scheme in the UK which accepts all industrial nickel cadmium batteries for recycling.

Beyond transposing the terms of a Commission Decision amending Annex II of the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive, which requires member states to ensure that cadmium in batteries for electric vehicles is not put on the market after 31 December 2005, the UK has no plans at present to ban nickel cadmium batteries. A proposal for a new EU Batteries Directive is currently awaited, and this may call for significant reductions in the use of nickel cadmium batteries throughout the European Union.

Table 1—supply interruptions per 100 connected customers
%change
	1990–91	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1994–9	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	1990–91 to 2001–02
Aquila	169.99	110.28	129.44	125.34	121.32	138.57	147.55	131.98	120.82	139.69	147.77	119.94
EME	169.40	81.87	74.54	91.75	96.09	97.16	95.07	93.10	76.47	77.80	91.38	78.82
EPN	75.75	67.50	96.41	59.15	64.77	84.80	89.27	73.71	60.40	66.61	68.83	82.92
Hydro	176.32	204.14	234.61	177.92	174.90	193.20	147.50	153.10	154.40	141.20	131.61	124.71
LPN	40.68	46.67	38.12	35.78	39.71	33.06	38.52	39.18	36.89	36.19	39.75	35.59
NEDL	107.71	90.27	86.69	79.80	88.71	89.96	89.04	90.07	92.59	89.91	98.09	93.65
SP	70.46	70.97	83.10	58.18	61.08	65.46	57.01	72.95	85.75	82.24	91.52	76.27
SPN	111.30	102.91	159.90	99.60	104.00	95.20	89.20	91.00	95.50	89.90	88.50	90.88
Southern	80.08	81.27	82.49	78.21	75.31	79.31	79.02	72.73	63.97	74.37	73.78	99.15
SP Manweb	81.89	73.75	85.86	88.64	70.04	61.50	57.19	57.33	44.13	53.08	53.01	51.60
UU	57.60	61.50	56.69	55.85	69.70	60.50	59.50	83.80	57.60	54.70	54.10	49.36
WPD South. Wales	284.60	228.00	195.28	213.50	219.70	223.30	191.70	185.70	150.20	152.70	158.20	128.40
WPD south-west	146.00	128.50	118.30	119.40	123.90	116.20	105.50	105.50	80.10	90.40	86.50	107.06
YEDL	158.45	69.06	71.82	71.05	84.78	86.49	93.12	80.00	71.79	73.03	69.82	58.70
Average	123.59	101.19	108.09	96.73	99.57	101.77	95.66	95.01	85.04	87.27	89.49	85.50	30.82

Note:

CIs = the number of customers interrupted per 100 customers per year.

Table 2—average customer minutes lost per customer per year
%change
	1990–91	1991–92	1992–93	1993–94	1994–95	1995–96	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	1990–91 to 2001–02
Aquila	397.76	118.14	122.22	144.12	127.96	151.30	125.97	116.21	99.69	116.95	143.22	122.21
EME	1,003.88	87.34	86.87	97.40	104.93	94.59	78.97	82.24	70.32	71.89	111.62	92.73
EPN	75.60	65.42	90.56	63.34	94.24	84.94	77.47	70.09	52.88	53.00	66.24	67.88
Hydro	172.02	270.26	355.82	254.12	233.00	365.00	205.70	219.50	220.00	123.30	111.46	143.46
LPN	51.31	67.31	52.78	51.80	58.06	53.94	55.92	50.05	45.21	38.76	43.49	36.16
NEDL	245.96	97.03	101.95	102.27	94.66	86.26	81.80	86.64	97.76	85.24	109.76	87.35
SP	85.30	75.58	97.50	76.95	69.92	81.03	88.57	77.36	177.31	76.58	151.88	87.46
SPN	111.60	96.20	118.30	84.10	93.30	77.90	89.30	92.00	75.80	73.20	74.50	88.87
Southern	103.98	109.18	91.30	74.40	77.61	77.98	67.23	56.03	51.63	57.54	68.74	90.85
SP Manweb	185.10	108.46	129.29	120.79	101.80	88.37	77.51	96.70	54.69	55.66	55.09	62.52
UU	87.70	74.70	76.50	68.70	70.00	67.00	65.90	96.40	79.90	62.70	59.70	54.29
WPD South Wales	330.07	325.38	212.33	199.50	212.00	232.70	189.30	182.90	145.20	136.80	123.30	90.53
WPD south-west	185.20	176.00	183.60	167.10	133.10	110.80	103.10	108.40	57.70	64.40	70.00	85.99
YEDL	174.63	59.70	59.30	60.65	68.59	62.29	59.70	59.10	53.70	53.66	56.21	54.78
Average	229.29	123.62	127.02	111.80	109.94	116.72	97.60	99.54	91.56	76.41	88.94	83.22	63.71

Notes:

1. CMLs = average customer minutes lost per customer per year.

2. Over the period 1990–91 to 2001–02, the number of customer interruptions per 100 connected customers fell by 30.82 per cent. and the average number of customer minutes lost per customer fell by 63.71 per cent.

3. It is important to note that in order to meet accuracy requirements, the DNOs were required to introduce new measurement systems by April 2002. This has meant that there was an increase in the accuracy of reporting in 2001–02. In some cases, this may have led to an increase in reported performance despite the underlying performance remaining the same.

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