Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government plans to work with Ofgem to address any market distortion created by the exemption of electricity imported from the continent from transmission network access charges.

Interconnection benefits UK consumers through the access of cheaper power from other countries when we need it, which enables greater competition between generators in both markets and improves price efficiency. In the same way that UK generators are charged to access our transmission network, continental generators exporting power to the UK will be subject to a range of charges and taxes in their own countries. UK generators can also benefit from exporting without paying for access to networks in other countries. Levying further charges on the power imported via an interconnector would reduce the benefits of accessing lower priced power from markets in other countries.