Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of guaranteeing the strike price to consumers of operational offshore wind sites in (a) 2015 and (b) 2017.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of smart meters which rely on 2G technology.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has not made an estimate of the number of smart meters that operate using 2G technology. Energy suppliers are incentivised to make sure they have procured communications to allow them to carry on operating smart meters for the whole of their life.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to keep coal plants open.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on plant closures are commercial matters for the plant owners. However, we recently consulted on changes to the Capacity Market, which included proposals for an early Capacity Market auction for the 2017/18 delivery year to mitigate the security of supply impact of potential early plant closures. If we go ahead with this proposal, coal plants will be eligible to participate.
On 18 November we announced plans to close all unabated coal-fired power stations by 2025. Achieving this goal would make the UK one of the first developed countries to deliver on a commitment to take coal off the system. However, we have been clear that we would only proceed with these plans if we are confident that the shift to new gas generation can be achieved within these timescales.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps the Government is taking to support international electricity connectors.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to increasing electricity interconnection with projects that support our energy objectives.
A number of interconnection projects are already progressing under Ofgem’s regulatory regime1, designed to bring forward interconnection investment in the interest of GB consumers. This includes projects to France, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and Ireland, which have been assessed by Ofgem as offering over £11.8bn in consumer benefits. A second window for applications for the cap and floor project is open until 31 October and the Government is keen to see more projects coming forward that can deliver strong consumer benefits.
The Government has also supported a number of mature interconnector projects to benefit from access to European grant funding as Projects of Common Interest.
Together these projects represent billions of pounds of infrastructure investment and aim to more than double our interconnection capacity by the early 2020s. This will make Britain more energy secure and will help lower consumer bills.
[1] Source, Ofgem https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/decision-roll-out-cap-and-floor-regime-near-term-electricity-interconnectors
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to ensure that the closure of coal-powered stations does not lead to electricity shortages.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We knew some old coal powered stations would likely be closing and we have already taken steps to ensure security of supply for the coming winters. National Grid has procured 3.6GW of reserve capacity for this coming winter. Looking further ahead, the Capacity Market is designed to drive new investment to help keep the lights on, as well as getting the best out of our existing power stations and we have recently consulted on proposals to introduce the Capacity Market a year early, from 2017/18. A response to the consultation will be published shortly
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many times a Notice of Insufficient Margin has been issued in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the past three years, National Grid have issued one Notice of Inadequate System Margin (NISM). This was issued on 4 November 2015.
National Grid requires a safety cushion to be able to manage the system in real time and a NISM is a call to the market to maintain that safety cushion. This gives generators in the market the opportunity to provide additional generation ahead of National Grid instructing plant and demand side response held in the Contingency Balancing Reserve, if required. It is not an indication that demand is about to outstrip supply.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of how much dispatchable electricity capacity will be lost in 2016 due to planned power station closures.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is estimated that the total conventional capacity installed in 2016/17 will be 58.1 – 59.1GW[1]. This represents closures of around 0.5GW - 1.8GW[2] between 2015/16 and 2016/17 and reflects the July 2015 Future Energy Scenarios outlook.
However, for 2016/17, National Grid have already secured 3.6GW of capacity within their Contingency Balancing Reserve, in which additional power stations are held to provide security in times of system stress. This extra capacity will help us to ensure we meet the GB 3 hour LOLE reliability standard and will be sufficient to maintain security of supply even in the toughest system conditions.
In addition to the Contingency Balancing Reserve, from 2018, the Capacity Market will ensure that retiring plant can be replaced by new investment by providing additional secure investment for both existing and new electricity generators
[1] As presented in Ofgem’s Capacity Assessment 2015, including Nuclear.
[2] Figures presented in this response are not de-rated to reflect expected availability at Winter peak.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the total dispatchable electricity capacity was in January (a) 2013, (b) 2014, (c) 2015 and (d) 2016; and what estimate she has made of that capacity in January (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dispatchable electricity, as defined by National Grid, comprises of generation that can be switched on and off at relatively short notice. This does not include substantial capacity in the GB mix such as nuclear and wind generation.
The attached table outlines both expected Pre-Winter dispatchable capacity[1], as per the relevant National Grid Winter Outlook publications and the 2015 Future Energy Scenarios Slow Progression projection of available capacity.
Post-2015/16 figures represent the Slow Progression July 2015 outlook of generation background. We take energy security very seriously and monitor the commercial outlook of supply frequently alongside National Grid and Ofgem.
The trend of declining conventional capacity has arisen due to margins in preceding years being unnecessarily large because of the recession. The drop off in capacity is a symptom of returning to the kinds of margins we were used to pre-recession and to reflect improvements in energy efficiency as well as increasing levels of renewable technologies coming on to the system.
Our priority is to ensure that British families and business have access to secure affordable energy supplies that they can rely on. National Grid have a number of tools to ensure a secure supply of electricity including Contingency Balancing Reserve, in which additional power stations are held to provide security in times of system stress. This extra capacity will help us to ensure we meet the GB 3 hour LOLE reliability standard and will be sufficient to maintain security of supply even in the toughest system conditions.
In addition to the Contingency Balancing Reserve, from 2018, the Capacity Market will ensure that retiring plant can be replaced by new investment by providing additional secure investment for both existing and new electricity generators