Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 amount of coal reserves that have planning permission to be mined for each year since 2010; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
Chapter 2 of the annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) includes data on coal reserves broken down by planning permission stage. The latest data for 2017 is available here (Table 2C):
Historical editions of DUKES are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the Government's policy is on carbon capture, utilisation and storage for (a) oil (b) gas (c) coal and (d) the industrial sector; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017, includes the Government’s new approach to carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS), setting an ambition of deploying CCUS at scale during the 2030s, subject to costs coming down sufficiently. The new approach sets out that CCUS has a potential role in decarbonising a number of sectors of the economy, including in industry, power and heat.
Government will be publishing a Deployment Pathway for CCUS by the end of the year which will set out the steps needed to meet this ambition. This will be informed by the CCUS Cost Challenge Taskforce that I established and which will report to me in July 2018.
In parallel, Government will invest £100 million in CCUS and industrial energy innovation and continue to work with other Governments and industry to drive down the cost and accelerate global deployment of CCUS. As part of this, I will be, with Fatih Birol, Executive Head of the International Energy Agency, hosting a high-level CCUS Summit on 28 November 2018 in Edinburgh.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much diesel electricity generating capacity is available on standby at times of peak demand; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The vast bulk of GB peak electricity needs are now secured through the Capacity Market. The amount of diesel that wins capacity agreements in each auction varies depending on the price bid and National Grid has not broken the capacity down to identify only diesel for the current delivery year. However, around 1.45% (789 MW) of the capacity agreements held for 2017/18 are in the Open Cycle Gas Turbine & Reciprocating Engine (Diesel) category, which would include diesel generators.
In addition, National Grid maintain balancing reserves on standby, including generating capacity in the form of the Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR), and Fast Reserve. These are secured through tender rounds which run three times a year for STOR and monthly for the Fast Reserve. Amounts to be procured varying according to need and National Grid do not routinely maintain a breakdown by fuel type for successful tenders. However, a fuel type analysis of STOR* was published for the period 27/10/14-2/2/15 which showed that diesel amounted to 743MW, or 22%, of the STOR procured in that season.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which regulations his Department (a) has introduced as a result of EU legislation from 23 June 2016 to date and (b) expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2018 and (ii) 2019; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
All regulations implementing EU legislation that have been introduced since 2013 can be found on www.legislation.gov.uk. Impact assessments, where available, can also be found here which provide details of costs of the implemented regulations.
In 2018, we expect to introduce a further 6 regulations. In 2019, we expect to introduce 6 regulations. However, the exact number is subject to ongoing negotiations.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of which is the cheapest form of electricity generation; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
BEIS’s most recent assessment of electricity generation costs can be found in the generation costs report (2016)[1] which covers both renewable and non-renewable technologies.
We are currently undertaking a review of our evidence on levelised costs of electricity generation.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the relationship between planning and the identification of minerals as a productivity foundation as set out in the Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has regular discussions with Ministerial Colleagues on a number of issues. This is in addition to official level discussions between BEIS officials and their counterparts in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local government on the issue of industrial minerals in construction.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which UK coal-fired power stations supplied the National Grid during the week commencing 26 February 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
All seven of Great Britain’s active coal plants generated at some point in the week commencing 26 February. These are; West Burton, Eggborough, Aberthaw B, Fiddlers Ferry, Ratcliffe, Drax and Cottam. This is in line with the normal functioning of the electricity market.
We have announced measures to ensure that all unabated coal generation will close by 2025. In the meantime, coal can be an important bridge to new, lower-carbon technologies, including gas, and can provide important and economic capacity in the interim period until coal units close.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the (a) level of further cost-effective energy efficiency measures that could be installed in homes and (b) effect of those measures on the energy bills of those households.
Answered by Claire Perry
(a) There is a large range of cost effective energy efficiency measures households could install in their homes. Each household has its own set of energy requirements. However, so a measure that is cost effective for one household may not be cost effective for another. The recent consultation impact assessment for the revised Private Rental Sector Regulations (see table 3a) shows the types of measures we expect to be installed to improve Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band F and G properties to band E[1]. This gives an indication, for each budget cap, of the likely mix of measures we would expect to be a cost effective way to improve the energy performance of homes.
(b) As set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, upgrading the energy performance of homes can lead to significant bill savings for consumers. For example, the annual running costs of an EPC Band C rated home are £270 lower than the average Band D rated home and £650 less than the average Band E home.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 people who will benefit from the landlords' liability fund for improving dwellings being set at (a) £2,500 and (b) £5,000.
Answered by Claire Perry
The recent consultation on the domestic Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property)(England and Wales) Regulations 2015 proposed to introduce a capped landlord funding contribution.
The Department estimates the policy to affect 280,000 properties across England and Wales that will all benefit from some energy efficiency improvements. If the landlord contribution is capped at £2,500 per property, 85,000 homes will reach Energy Performance Certificate band E, whereas if the cap is set at £5,000, 118,000 homes will achieve band E. The remaining properties under both options will receive some energy efficiency improvements but will not achieve band E.
Full details of the policy options under considerations and the complete consultation stage impact assessment are available via the gov.uk consultation hub.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the Coal Authority's most recent estimate is of coal reserves in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Coal Authority operates across Great Britain only. The following table shows estimated GB coal reserves as at 14 June 2017:
Million tonnes of reserves | ||||
| England | Scotland | Wales | Total |
Current sites and licences(1) | 353 | 149 | 36 | 538 |
Prospects | 2,516 | 115 | 197 | 2,827 |
Total | 2,869 | 264 | 233 | 3,365 |
Current sites and licences include operational mines, planning granted, in planning process and pre-planning.
Totals may not sum due to rounding.
The data is provided by the Coal Authority and published in the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), table 2C, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/632495/Chapter_2.pdf