Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the amount of electricity generated in GW by (a) onshore and (b) offshore wind projects in Scotland that will be subject to price controls for gas distribution and electricity transmission under RIIO-2 in each of the next seven years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Ofgem regulates gas and electricity distribution and transmission network companies through the RIIO price control framework. The current price control RIIO-T2 provides up to £40bn for investment in the network between now and 2026 that will support our net zero and energy security ambitions while protecting consumers. Electricity generation is not subject to the price control process.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what data he holds on the number of (a) new and (b) existing homes in which energy efficiency measures were installed in each year since 2010.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Information regarding the number of existing households receiving energy efficiency measures through Government funded schemes from 2013 are in Table 9.1 accompanying the Household Energy Efficiency Statistics, detailed report 2021 here.
The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) were Government schemes prior to 2013. More information can be found here and here.
The Government does not hold information on installations in new households as these schemes are aimed towards retrofitting households. Information on energy performance of new dwellings is included in the statistics on Energy Performance of Buildings Certificates here and as Open Data here.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether risk assessments have been undertaken to assess the risk of Torness nuclear power station having to go offline before 2028.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Torness, like other Advanced Gas-Cooled reactor power stations, is subject to graphite cracking, which limits its safe operational life.
Operational dates of the nuclear fleet are kept under constant review by EDF and the Office for Nuclear Regulator (ONR) with any extensions being agreed between them. The Department is in regular communication with EDF and the ONR but has no formal role in these decisions.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish the (a) service and (b) shareholding stakes procured in the NNB Holding Company for the development of Sizewell C power station from the £700 million announced by the Prime Minister on 1 September 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Sizewell C Project could play an important role in our ambitions for nuclear new build and delivery of energy security and, subject to the outcome of negotiations, the Government is prepared to invest up to £700m at this stage in its development. Negotiations over the Project are ongoing and are commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many homes were upgraded to energy performance certificate band C in each year since 2010.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Estimates of the number of dwellings by EPC band are made for England in the English Housing Survey headline report annex table 2.8. The table below collates the time series requested:
Estimated Number of Dwellings in England by Energy Efficiency Rating (Thousands)
| A-C | D-G | Number of homes improved to Band A-C[1] |
2009 | 2,595 | 19,740 |
|
2010 | 2,971 | 19,573 | 167 |
2011 | 3,348 | 19,406 | 167 |
2012 | 4,141 | 18,577 | 829 |
2013 | 5,373 | 17,881 | 696 |
2014 | 6,125 | 17,246 | 635 |
2015 | 6,700 | 16,843 | 403 |
2016 | 7,049 | 16,684 | 159 |
2017 | 7,214 | 16,736 | -52 |
2018 | 8,290 | 15,883 | 853 |
2019 | 9,854 | 14,560 | 1,323 |
2020 | 10,856 | 12,678 | 1,881 |
Source: English Housing Survey
[1] The estimate of homes upgraded to band A-C from D-G has been derived by subtraction of the previous year’s estimate of D-G homes.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2020-to-2021-headline-report.
It should be noted that it is difficult to make accurate year on year comparisons and there have been slight changes in the methodology used to derive EPC ratings over time. Overall, the number of dwellings in England is increasing and so the total increase in band A-C dwellings is higher than the number of D-Gs improved to band A-C due to new dwellings.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 21 June 2022 to Question 19632, what discussions he has had with (a) EDF and (b) NNB holding company limited on configuration of its investors; and whether China Nuclear remains a shareholder in that company.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has been in commercial negotiations with both EDF and the Sizewell C project company since January 2021. These negotiations are ongoing and commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
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 impact assessment BEIS039(F) for the Nuclear Energy (Financing) Act 2022, if he will make a comparative assessment of the equity of utilising a 9 per cent hurdle rate to estimate the cost of a new nuclear power station to be constructed under a Contract for Difference and a maximum 6 per cent hurdle rate for the cost of constructing new nuclear power station under a RAB model.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Impact Assessment (IA) calculated the difference in the cost of building and financing an illustrative large-scale nuclear plant, funded by the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) or Contracts for Difference (CfD) model. Several assumptions were made to reflect uncertainty around project cost and likely hurdle rate for investors.
The RAB enables lower cost of finance, by providing a revenue stream to the developer during construction. The IA shows that RAB results in better value for consumers over the project lifetime and reduces total project costs. Paragraphs 58-61 https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3057/publications explain the different hurdles rates assumed under a CfD compared to RAB.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
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 Prime Minister's oral contribution on 8 September 2022, Official Report, column 398, if he will set out the green levies to be suspended from energy bills; and if he will provide (a) the total value per household bill of suspending those levies and (b) how those levies will be funded.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The green levies to be temporarily suspended from household energy bills are the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), Feed in Tariff (FiT), Green Gas Levy (GGL), Renewable Obligation (RO), and the Warm Home Discount (WHD). The total value per household of average usage of suspending these levies is equivalent to £150 a year and the funding of these levies will be met by the Government through the Energy Price Guarantee during the temporary suspension.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many gigawatts of energy the Electricity System Operator plans to allow from future connections from offshore wind projects in (a) Scotland and (b) England and Wales in the context of the Government's increased target of up to 50 GW of operating offshore wind capacity by 2030.
Answered by Graham Stuart
For projects expected to connect by 2030 that are not already operational, 26GW of capacity will connect in England and Wales, and 18GW of capacity will connect in Scotland.
Projects that are expected to connect before 2030 but do not yet have an indicative landing point have been excluded from the figures above.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with (a) EDF and (b) the Low Carbon Contracts Company about an extension of EDF's deadline for generating electricity from reactor one at Hinkley Point C nuclear plant while continuing to access the full 35 year contractual period of the Contract for Difference.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government, the Low Carbon Contract Company (LCCC) and EDF maintain regular contact on the Hinkley Point C Contract for Difference (CfD).
In their role as counterparty to the CfD, the LCCC have recognised that COVID-19 is capable of being a Force Majeure event and discussions on this are ongoing.
HPC is a private, developer-led project and any cost overruns during construction are borne by the developer.