Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to investigate the late delivery of the Western Link interconnector; and whether negligence in construction or operation of that interconnector may expose consumers to additional costs.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The information requested is a matter for Ofgem. Ofgem will write directly to my noble Friend and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to require Ofgem to publish the calculations behind the approved rate of return allowed to the owners of the Western Link interconnector.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The information requested is a matter for Ofgem. Ofgem will write directly to my noble Friend and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what annual standing charge on the consumer has been permitted by Ofgem to the owners of the Western Link interconnector between Hunterston and Deeside; and for how many years that charge has been permitted.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The information requested is a matter for Ofgem. Ofgem will write directly to my noble Friend and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to address rising electricity prices, in the light of data released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change showing that prices in the rest of the EU15 countries are not rising.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government wants to make sure that the cost of energy is affordable, fair and internationally competitive, both for businesses and households.
The recent Committee on Climate Change report on the impact of energy policies on consumers’ energy bills found that energy efficiency policies bring down bills and outweigh the cost of other energy and climate change policies for households.
The Industrial Strategy Green Paper, published in January 2017, announced our intention to commission a review to look at the cost of energy and the opportunities to reduce the cost of achieving our decarbonisation goals in the power and industrial sectors.
The latest BEIS published international energy price comparison statistics show that medium-sized domestic electricity prices including taxes rose in most other EU15 countries in 2016 compared to 2015. The UK electricity price, however, fell over the same period. Prices are expressed in pounds sterling and the relative price increase across the rest of the EU15 is mainly due to pound/euro exchange rate changes.
Over the same period, electricity prices for industrial users increased across most EU15 countries but were broadly unchanged in the UK. As with domestic price comparisons, exchange rate movements will have contributed to increases in electricity prices for other EU countries when expressed in pounds sterling.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will instruct National Grid to review the system security rules specifying wind turbine Fault Ride Through, in the light of the final report by the Australian Energy Market Operator on the September 2016 blackout in South Australia.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
National Grid is responsible for specifying and reviewing the technical requirements for connection to, and use of, the National Electricity Transmission System. Wind turbine Fault Ride Through requirements were introduced by National Grid in June 2005 following consultation.
National Grid and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy continue to engage with the Australian Electricity Market Operator to understand the causes of the South Australia Blackout Event on 28th September 2016 and identify any learning relevant to the GB National Electricity Transmission System.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish the original version of the Frontier Economics paper <i>Whole Power System Impacts.</i>
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government has published the final report, as provided by Frontier Economics. The Government will consider the Freedom of Information requests that have been submitted in relation to publishing draft material prepared by Frontier Economics.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to publish energy and climate policy price impact tables for the years 2015 and 2016, which were last released in the Annual Energy Statement 2014, covering various types of consumer, and in the low, central and high fossil fuel price scenarios.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
In November 2016 the Government published the Consumer-Funded Policies Report, setting out expenditure and outcomes of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s consumer funded energy policies.
The Government recognises the importance of domestic consumers having regular, reliable data on the costs and impacts of Government energy policies and on energy prices and bills and we will be publishing our latest estimates in the near future.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether increases in the global mean sea level are inconsistent with reasonably expected natural variability; and whether there is any evidence for such inconsistency that is not based on computer simulations of the climate.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Evidence that increases in the global mean sea level are inconsistent with natural variability can be found in the 5th Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5). This states that it is very likely (> 90% probability) that human activities contributed substantially to global average sea level rise since the 1970s.
Instrumental and proxy data reveal that global average sea level began to rise above the long-term natural background rate in the early twentieth century. Our physical understanding of these observations and their attribution to human activity does not require computer simulations: the oceans have absorbed over 90% of the excess energy that has accumulated in the climate system from human greenhouse gas emissions, and the resulting thermal expansion of seawater accounts for 40% of observed sea level rise. Computer simulations of the climate provide further evidence that human influences, and not natural variability alone, explain these changes.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and if so when, the non-executive directors of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will be asked to review implementation of the Kelly report <i>Management of the Levy Control Framework: Lessons Learned Report (2015)</i>.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Levy Control Framework, including progress against the recommendations in the Kelly report, is considered as part of the normal course of business for the Department’s Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. This committee is chaired by a Non-Executive Member of the Department’s Board.
Asked by: Viscount Ridley (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will resume publication of the estimated impacts of energy and climate policies on energy prices and bills, as part of its commitment to increased transparency, as recommended in the Kelly report <i>Management of the Levy Control Framework: Lessons Learned Report (2015)</i>.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Department is currently considering this issue, along with the other recommendations and actions arising from the Public Accounts Committee hearing on the Levy Control Framework that took place on 30 November. A response to the Committee will be submitted in due course.