Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of recoupling the GB and EU day-ahead electricity markets without recoupling the intraday markets on the competitiveness of wholesale electricity markets.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In 2021, HMG consulted on current arrangements for trading electricity on power exchanges in the GB wholesale electricity market and outlined proposals to support efficient cross-border trading. That consultation focused on day-ahead trading but also sought views on the intraday timeframe.
HMG’s consultation response outlined the intention to legislate to achieve a single GB clearing price in the day-ahead timeframe, subject to engagement with the UK-EU Specialised Committee on Energy, industry and stakeholders to ensure HMG is well placed to make a final decision on progressing legislation. HMG confirmed development of efficient arrangements in other timeframes should remain under review.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many rural households were in fuel poverty in (a) each region of England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland as of 22 March 2024.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
DESNZ has responsibility for the measurement of fuel poverty in England. The latest estimates of fuel poverty in England are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics
Table 5 of the detailed tables shows the number of fuel poor households by rurality in 2023 and Table 6 by region. Due to sample size constraints, it is not possible to provide suitable estimates for rural households in fuel poverty by individual region.
Fuel poverty is a devolved matter and different metrics of fuel poverty are used in the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to help ensure all eligible heat network consumers receive financial support via the Energy Bills Discount Scheme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) regulations placed a legal duty on heat network suppliers with at least one domestic customer to apply for EBDS Heat Network support, and to pass through any benefit received to the end consumer.
The Department has conducted extensive engagement to maximise applications from eligible heat networks, to try and reach as many customers as possible. This included extensive stakeholder communications campaigns and reaching out to all known heat networks on government databases. We also wrote to Members of Parliament who have qualifying heat networks in their constituency, asking them to reach out to the heat network suppliers to inform them of their requirement to apply for the scheme.
We have also streamlined the application process to make it easier for heat networks to apply and worked closely with the Office for Product Safety and Standards to initiate enforcement action against known heat networks who have failed to apply.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and what proportion of heat suppliers has her Department taken enforcement action against under the Energy Bills Discount Scheme as of 25 March 2023.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Office of Product Safety and Standards acts on behalf of the Secretary of State to enforce the scheme. They have taken action against 657 heat network cases.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many qualifying heat supplier certificates have been issued via the Energy Bills Discount Scheme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
As of 28 March 2024, 12,743 heat network applications for the Energy Bills Discount Scheme have been approved (and therefore certificates issued).
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make it her policy to accept retrospective support applications from heat suppliers via the Energy Bills Discount Scheme after 31 March 2024.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
For eligible heat networks, the deadline to apply for the scheme was 31 March 2024. The closure of the Energy Bills Discount Scheme for heat networks has been communicated through numerous campaigns, online, and through targeted outreach to suppliers and networks. We also wrote to Members of Parliament who have qualifying heat networks in their constituency, asking them to reach out to the heat network suppliers to inform them of their requirement to apply for the scheme.
However, the Department is allowing a two-week grace period following the 31 March 2024 deadline for any newly eligible heat networks to submit an application.
Any applications that submitted their application before the deadline, and were eligible on 1 April 2023, will receive support backdated to that date.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and what proportion of applications her Department has received from heat suppliers via the Energy Bills Discount Scheme; and how many individual heat networks are covered by those applications.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department has received around 14,400 Energy Bills Discount Scheme applications for heat networks. There is no centralised list of heat networks across the UK, or how many domestic customers these networks serve. The most reliable data we have access to is taken from the Heat Network Metering and Billing Regulations, which estimates that there are 8,900 heat networks serving residential customers in the UK.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what the cost to consumers was of energy network improvements by Distribution Network Operators in each of the last five years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Ofgem is responsible for regulating networks through a price control process that enables the investment needed to deliver a secure, resilient, net zero network in an efficient way, protecting consumers from excessive costs. Costs for network investment are recovered through electricity bills over a period of 45 years. The previous price control, covering the period between 2015 and 2023, enabled over £24bn of Distribution Network Operator expenditure. The cost impact on consumer bills remained broadly flat for this period.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made an estimate of the cost to the public purse of the System Operator favoring high carbon power stations over low carbon options in the balancing mechanism.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Electricity System Operator (ESO) has a licence obligation to operate the system in the most economic and efficient way possible. The main factors that influence operating decisions are cost, system conditions, network constraints, generators’ technical capabilities, and the ESO’s own operational capabilities.
The ESO has an ambition to operate the transmission system with 100% zero carbon for short periods in 2025. It therefore has an extensive programme of work to extend its ability to operate a zero-carbon transmission system across more market and system scenarios.
Asked by: Alan Whitehead (Labour - Southampton, Test)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many private rented properties have a registered exemption from minimum energy efficiency standards as of 28 February 2024.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
On 28 February 2024, there were a total of 15,222 registered exemptions from the minimum energy efficiency standard regulations for both domestic and non-domestic private rented properties.