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 Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293680 on Solar Power: Statistics, what assessment his Department has made of whether the the Solar photovoltaics deployment report provides (a) adequate and (b) reliable real time data on local generation to enable smart management of local supplies; and what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that Ofgem has the (i) data and (ii) resources necessary to accurately map local generation.

The Solar photovoltaics deployment report does not currently include unsubsidised solar installations below 1MW capacity that are not registered on the Microgeneration Certification Scheme database, although we are reviewing data sources and working with industry to improve coverage.

In addition to this, the Government has recently endorsed the five key recommendations from the Energy Data Taskforce and is working with Ofgem, Innovate UK and industry to implement them. As part of this work we are also considering the way forward to improve the collection and sharing of asset and operational data from various distributed energy resources (which includes solar PVs). The Government has also asked Ofgem to report annually on the Smart Export Guarantee.