Renewable Energy: Wales

(asked on 15th June 2021) - View Source

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 effectiveness of the transmission electricity network in Wales in facilitating renewable energy generation.


Answered by
Anne-Marie Trevelyan Portrait
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 21st June 2021

The Government recognises the importance of investing in electricity transmission network infrastructure to enable renewable generation to build and connect to the grid. The electricity transmission network in Wales and across Great Britain is regulated via a price control, set and administered by Ofgem, as the independent regulator. The current price control commenced on 1 April this year, and it includes £8.7bn of upfront funding for electricity transmission across Great Britain, £5.4bn (2018/19 prices) of which is allocated to National Grid Electricity Transmission which owns and operates the electricity transmission network in England and Wales. Further funding of up to £10bn for future projects to enable net zero is also available across the next price control (electricity transmission and gas), including readying the network for further renewable generation.

The UK Government remains firmly committed to the renewables industry across the UK, including in Wales. To date, Contracts for Difference (CfD) have been awarded to 5 projects in Wales, totalling around 200MW of capacity. Future CfD auctions will provide further opportunities for developers of renewable electricity projects in Wales to secure contracts and expand the amount of capacity supported by the scheme in Wales.

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