Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to lay a fully-costed impact assessment before both Houses of Parliament before making any adjustment to the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction target.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) detailed and analytically rigorous report has shown that this goal is now feasible, deliverable, and can be met within the same cost envelope (an annual resource cost equivalent to 1-2% of GDP in 2050) as was estimated for the 80% target when it was set in 2008. As the CCC identify, there are a wide range of benefits which could partly or fully offset these costs.
While the transition to a net zero economy undoubtedly requires new investment, it also opens up opportunities for the UK to build on its areas of strength, including in offshore wind manufacture, provision of green finance, and development of electric vehicles.
Policies to support delivery of a net zero target will be subject to impact assessments in the usual way.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in commissioning future energy projects, what account they intend to take of the full system and intermittency cost of competing technologies, and whether they intend to implement an Equivalent Firm Power capacity auction.
Answered by Lord Henley
Professor Helm conducted an independent review which, among other things, made recommendations regarding full system and intermittency costs, and a system of Equivalent Firm Power capacity auctions. The government will now take time to assess its findings carefully. We have launched a Call for Evidence to gather views from the energy industry, academics, businesses, consumer groups and other stakeholders.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Prior of Brampton on 26 October (HL2180–HL2182), in relation to electricity costs, what has been the percentage increase in Balancing Services Use of System charges between 2007 and 2017.
Answered by Lord Henley
Network charging is a matter for Ofgem as the independent energy regulator, and Government does not hold the requested data. Ofgem has published an ‘Infographic: The Energy Network’ which shows that network costs fell by 45% following privatisation. There was then a planned increase in network costs from around 2006 to around 2015 to pay for network upgrades, with network costs remaining broadly flat since then. Network costs are still around 17% below levels at the time of privatisation due to improved efficiency, and have remained at around 25% of the average dual fuel bill for some time.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Prior of Brampton on 26 October (HL2180–HL2182), in relation to electricity costs, what has been the percentage increase in Distribution Services Use of System charges between 2007 and 2017.
Answered by Lord Henley
Network charging is a matter for Ofgem as the independent energy regulator, and Government does not hold the requested data. Ofgem has published an ‘Infographic: The Energy Network’ which shows that network costs fell by 45% following privatisation. There was then a planned increase in network costs from around 2006 to around 2015 to pay for network upgrades, with network costs remaining broadly flat since then. Network costs are still around 17% below levels at the time of privatisation due to improved efficiency, and have remained at around 25% of the average dual fuel bill for some time.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Prior of Brampton on 26 October (HL2180–HL2182), in relation to electricity costs, what has been the percentage increase in Transmission Network Use of System charges between 2007 and 2017.
Answered by Lord Henley
Network charging is a matter for Ofgem as the independent energy regulator, and Government does not hold the requested data. Ofgem has published an ‘Infographic: The Energy Network’ which shows that network costs fell by 45% following privatisation. There was then a planned increase in network costs from around 2006 to around 2015 to pay for network upgrades, with network costs remaining broadly flat since then. Network costs are still around 17% below levels at the time of privatisation due to improved efficiency, and have remained at around 25% of the average dual fuel bill for some time.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings by Dieter Helm, in his report Cost of Energy Review, commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, that (1) the legacy costs from the Renewables Obligation Certificates, the feed-in tariffs, and low carbon contracts for difference are a major contributor to rising final prices, and (2) energy prices should be falling, and they should go on falling into the medium and longer terms.
Answered by Lord Henley
Professor Helm conducted an independent review. The Government will now take time to assess its findings carefully. We have launched a Call for Evidence to gather views from the energy industry, academics, businesses, consumer groups and other stakeholders.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in relation to electricity costs, what they estimate the percentage increase will be for Transmission Network Use of System charges between (1) now and 2020, and (2) now and 2030; and what proportion of these increases will be attributable to efforts to connect renewable energy sources to the national grid.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Transmission, distribution and balancing charges are set by network companies in line with the charging methodologies approved by Ofgem, as the independent regulator.
Network companies also produce some future estimates of these charges. These include National Grid’s forecasts of Transmission Network Use of System charges for 2018/19 to 2021/22 (available at: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Industry-information/System-charges/Electricity-transmission/Approval-conditions/Condition-5/) and Balancing Services Use of System charges to 2018/19 (available at: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Industry-information/Electricity-transmission-operational-data/Report-explorer/Services-Reports/). These forecasts are not broken down to show renewable energy sources.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in relation to electricity costs, what they estimate the percentage increase will be for Distribution Services Use of System charges between (1) now and 2020, and (2) now and 2030; and what proportion of these increases will be attributable to efforts to connect renewable energy sources to the national grid.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Transmission, distribution and balancing charges are set by network companies in line with the charging methodologies approved by Ofgem, as the independent regulator.
Network companies also produce some future estimates of these charges. These include National Grid’s forecasts of Transmission Network Use of System charges for 2018/19 to 2021/22 (available at: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Industry-information/System-charges/Electricity-transmission/Approval-conditions/Condition-5/) and Balancing Services Use of System charges to 2018/19 (available at: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Industry-information/Electricity-transmission-operational-data/Report-explorer/Services-Reports/). These forecasts are not broken down to show renewable energy sources.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in relation to electricity costs, what they estimate the percentage increase will be for Balancing Services Use of System charges between (1) now and 2020, and (2) now and 2030; and what proportion of these increases will be attributable to efforts to connect renewable energy sources to the national grid.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Transmission, distribution and balancing charges are set by network companies in line with the charging methodologies approved by Ofgem, as the independent regulator.
Network companies also produce some future estimates of these charges. These include National Grid’s forecasts of Transmission Network Use of System charges for 2018/19 to 2021/22 (available at: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Industry-information/System-charges/Electricity-transmission/Approval-conditions/Condition-5/) and Balancing Services Use of System charges to 2018/19 (available at: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Industry-information/Electricity-transmission-operational-data/Report-explorer/Services-Reports/). These forecasts are not broken down to show renewable energy sources.
Asked by: Lord Donoughue (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 14 March (HL5780), whether their statement that the increase in global average surface temperatures is not consistent with natural internal variability is supported by evidence that is not based upon computer simulation of the climate.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Our statement reflects the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report that it is virtually certain (>99% probability) that natural internal variability alone cannot account for the observed increase in global surface temperatures. This statement is based on computer model simulations, which capture both the observed magnitude and spatial patterns of warming only when both human and natural forcings are included. Further, reconstructions of past climate variability from records such as ice cores also reveal that recent temperature changes are clearly distinct from natural variability. These records show that temperatures over the last 50 years in the Northern Hemisphere (where records of past climate are most comprehensive) were unusually high relative to the last 1000 years.