Mike Crockart
Main Page: Mike Crockart (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Mr Davey
The key purpose of electricity market reform is to allow the market to make decisions of that sort. As the hon. Gentleman will know, my Ministers and I are extremely supportive of demand reduction and energy efficiency measures, which have a critical role to play in our energy mix, but we also need to bring in new supply. We face rising electricity demand as we electrify the transport and heating sectors in the years ahead to meet our climate change targets, even if we have the most ambitious energy efficiency policies imaginable, so we need both a supply-side and a demand-side response.
Mike Crockart (Edinburgh West) (LD)
Does the Secretary of State agree that although demand reduction is essential, demand balancing must also receive a bit more attention, and intelligent smart meters in homes would make an important contribution to that?
Mr Davey
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Sometimes in energy debates people think there is one particular solution or technology. The truth is we need a diverse-mix balanced approach on both the demand and the supply sides, and new technologies such as smart grids and smart meters have an important role to play.