Electricity Generation

Lord Jenkin of Roding Excerpts

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Jenkin of Roding]

My Lords, is my noble friend completely satisfied that the Ofgem forecast is not being a bit cautious, particularly—to pick up the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Tombs—with regard to extending the lives of the AGR nuclear power stations? Is she aware that some of us heard a very compelling address to the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee by one of the research experts in this field saying that science now shows that extending those lives is distinctly feasible, perhaps up to the end of the decade and even beyond? If that happens, would that not significantly improve the figures that the noble Lord’s Question has quoted?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I recognise and pay tribute to my noble friend’s expertise on this; having been in post for only eight weeks, I am sure that there is much that I can take away from him. However, I emphasise that the report has been prepared independently by Ofgem. It is important to acknowledge that the projections of future electricity capacity are dependent on a range of assumptions. I hear clearly what the noble Lord says about the nuclear power stations having extended life. All I can say to reassure him is that there are a lot of discussions going on and much of that will be relevant to what he has raised.