Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessments he has made of the effects of a reduced capacity factor on the levelised cost of gas-fired power stations.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Whilst unabated gas generation currently plays a key role in keeping Great Britain’s electricity system stable and secure (with around 34 GW of capacity currently installed on the system), the development of clean flexible technologies means it will be used less frequently in the future. The Government is actively developing policies to bring forward low carbon flexible technologies and to ensure that unabated gas capacity has clear decarbonisation pathways.
Achieving the UK's ambitious 2050 net zero target will require significant increases in renewable electricity generation and Great Britain’s exposure to volatile global gas prices underscores the importance of the Government’s plan to build a robust domestic renewable and resilient energy sector to further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 effects of increasing wind penetration in the electricity system on the capacity factor of gas-fired power stations.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Whilst unabated gas generation currently plays a key role in keeping Great Britain’s electricity system stable and secure (with around 34 GW of capacity currently installed on the system), the development of clean flexible technologies means it will be used less frequently in the future. The Government is actively developing policies to bring forward low carbon flexible technologies and to ensure that unabated gas capacity has clear decarbonisation pathways.
Achieving the UK's ambitious 2050 net zero target will require significant increases in renewable electricity generation and Great Britain’s exposure to volatile global gas prices underscores the importance of the Government’s plan to build a robust domestic renewable and resilient energy sector to further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the report titled Auctions for allocation of offshore wind contracts for difference in the UK, published in February 2019, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding by Oxford Institute for Energy Studies that auction strike prices are unlikely to be indicative of underlying costs for renewable generators.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme operates as a competitive auction where the strike price successful participants receive is based on the clearing price, which is a product of bid prices. It is for developers to consider a bid price that is sustainable for their project, based on their own, forward-looking assessment of their likely project costs and revenues, and projects are only paid for the electricity they generate.
The Department publishes its own view of future electricity generation costs by technology – the latest version is from 2020, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-2020.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has he made of the relative seismicity of geothermal energy extraction and shale gas extraction through fracking.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
A 2012 Written Ministerial Statement outlined new requirements on fracking to mitigate the risks of seismic activity – the ‘traffic light system’. This statement acknowledged that the trigger levels set in this system were cautious and exceeded the control protocols in place for other industries such as geothermal energy, construction and quarrying. However, it was made clear that the reasons for this approach were specific and appropriate to the context of the nascent shale gas sector. It noted that trigger levels could be adjusted upwards as experience of fracking operations developed.
Following a seismic event of magnitude 2.9 at Preston New Road in 2019, the Government took a presumption against issuing further hydraulic fracturing consents. Seismic events induced by fracking had proved to be unpredictable in size, timing and frequency.
It remains the Government’s policy to be guided by the evidence and to minimise disturbance to those living and working nearby, and to prevent the risk of damage.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 effects of increasing wind penetration in the electricity system on market prices.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Achieving the UK's ambitious 2050 net zero target will require significant increases in renewable electricity generation. As more renewables, including wind, are added to the system, wholesale prices will be less affected by fluctuations in volatile global gas prices.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has estimated the effect on consumer bills of the use of audited financial accounts and financial close announcements as a guide to underlying costs rather than strike prices.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme operates as a competitive auction where the strike price successful participants receive is based on the clearing price, which is a product of bid prices. It is for developers to consider a bid price that is sustainable for their project, based on their own, forward-looking assessment of their likely project costs and revenues. Once projects begin generating, it is the difference between this strike price and the wholesale electricity price that drives any impact on consumer bills, and projects are only paid for the electricity they generate. This means that an assessment along the lines of what The Honourable Member for Wycombe proposes would not reflect assumptions consistent with actual costs likely to be paid by consumers.
The Department publishes its own view of future electricity generation costs by technology – the latest version is from 2020, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-2020.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 levelised cost of offshore wind farms commissioning in 2022.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department’s Electricity Generation Cost Report[1] published on gov.uk sets out levelised cost of electricity estimates for a range of technologies, including offshore wind.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-2020
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish the calculations underlying his Department’s most recent estimates of levelised costs of renewable generators.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department’s most recent Electricity Generation Cost Report[1] published on gov.uk sets out the calculation methodology behind levelised cost estimates for renewable generators.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-2020
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to prevent the implementation of the Oil and Gas Authority's order to concrete shale gas wells at the Preston New Road site in Lancashire.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Gas wells need to be safely decommissioned at the end of their useful life. The Oil and Gas Authority is acting within its statutory remit to require the operator of these wells to decommission them.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has taken steps to review the corpus of retained EU law and other UK regulations for the purposes of (a) identifying potential negative impact on (i) trade and (ii) competition and (b) prioritising for change those for which a potential negative impact is identified; what estimate he has made of the time it will take to complete such a review; and whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to implement changes identified.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department is supporting the Government’s review into retained EU Law, which will provide an authoritative assessment of where retained EU law is concentrated on the statute book and assist the consideration of future legislative requirements. The recently published ‘Benefits of Brexit: how the UK is taking advantage of leaving the EU’ policy paper announced that the Government intends to amend, replace, or repeal all the retained EU law that is not right for the UK and prioritise areas where reform can deliver the greatest economic gain, with the Government aiming to cut £1 billion of business costs from retained EU red tape.
My Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister has also announced that the Government will bring forward a Brexit Freedoms Bill to make it easier to remove or amend retained EU law in the future.