Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if he will develop a strategy on electricity storage across the UK.

A DECC report ‘Electricity System: Assessment of Future Challenges', published August 2012, concluded that: “increasingly, technologies that can be used to help balance the supply and demand of electricity (demand side response (DSR), electricity storage and interconnection) and smarter networks are likely to be required to help match the supply and demand of electricity efficiently and cost-effectively under the changing generation and demand profiles”. The extent of deployment of storage will depend on the composition of future electricity systems – both supply and demand – as well as the cost and availability of storage and the other balancing technologies.

The Low Carbon Innovation Coordination Group (LCICG), which includes the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the other major public-sector backed organisations that invest in low carbon technology innovation, published a Strategic Framework in February 2014, which prioritises future innovation needs in 11 key technology areas – including electricity storage. While the Strategic Framework highlights the uncertainty about the exact role for storage in the future energy system and the role of different storage technologies, it has identified strategic priorities for continued and future UK innovation investment in electricity storage. DECC, working with the other LCICG members, will use the Strategic Framework to help develop and co-ordinate future spending plans for innovation in storage and other low carbon technologies.