Energy: Winter Supplies

Lord Ezra Excerpts

Monday 20th October 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Ezra]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to secure adequate energy supplies during the coming winter.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Baroness Verma) (Con)]

My Lords, we continue to actively manage risks to the secure energy supplies on which we depend. Working with Ofgem and National Grid, we have introduced new electricity system balancing measures through which we expect de-rated margins to remain around 6.5%; this is within the reliability standard of 4%. Our gas infrastructure is resilient, and import infrastructure can meet nearly double our annual demand without even counting on significant domestic production. We also engage closely with the EU and our G7 partners on measures to increase the EU’s energy security.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Ezra (LD)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her Answer, but will she kindly elaborate further on the security of electricity supplies? In view of the fact that the reserve capacity is down to very low levels, and that a number of stations have had unexpected outages—including Didcot B, announced today—can she indicate whether there are likely to be disconnections during peak winter conditions?

[Baroness Verma]

My noble friend is right to highlight the outages. However, as I stated in my initial Answer, the grid already has existing options for companies to receive payment to reduce the amount of electricity they are taking from the grid at a time of peak demand during winter months. They are finalising new agreements with additional power stations to provide reserve services following the recent loss to which my noble friend referred. The national grid has around three gigawatts of additional tools to boost supply when margins are very tight and is in the process of extending our mutual assistance arrangements with both France and the Netherlands.