Energy: Winter Supplies

Lord Lawson of Blaby Excerpts

Monday 20th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[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.

[Lord Lawson of Blaby (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Ezra, has rightly drawn the attention of the House to a truly alarming state of affairs, which is the direct result of subordinating over a number of years energy policy to the damaging, fundamentally immoral and futile demands of the Climate Change Act. Has my noble friend had time to study the outstanding GWPF lecture given by our right honourable friend Owen Paterson MP on this very subject only last week? If she has not, will she now do so?

[Baroness Verma]

As ever, I am grateful for my noble friend’s interventions because they enable me to highlight that, of course, we do have to look at the costs of any policy. However, we also need to look at the commitments we have made to reducing carbon emissions both in our global targets and in our national targets. I remind noble Lords that having a lower-carbon energy sector has brought in more than £45 billion worth of investment in electricity generation. That is a clear signal that we need a diverse range of energy supplies. I have not looked at my right honourable friend’s lecture notes but I will do so.