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 Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan 2021, published in July 2021, what estimate he has made of the total costs of constraint payments made to electricity producers under that plan; and what long-duration storage technologies will be utilised by the Government to reduce constraint payments and overall energy system costs.

National Grid Electricity System Operator modelled future constraint costs in its 2020/21 Network Options Assessment (NOA).

As outlined in the 2021 Smart System and Flexibility Plan, the Electricity System Operator is carrying out analysis to understand how storage can cost effectively manage network constraints, which is expected to be completed by December 2021; and Government has commissioned external analysis, which considers the system need for large-scale, long-duration storage including its role in reducing constraint payments and overall costs.

The Government and Ofgem intend to publish an electricity networks strategy later in the year, which will consider ways in which electricity network infrastructure can be built and used more efficiently to lessen the issue of constraints.