Draft Electricity Capacity (Amendment) Regulations 2016

Philip Boswell Excerpts

Monday 27th June 2016 General Committees

[Philip Boswell (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Main. I will keep this brief, but I will ask the Minister a few questions. First, what likelihood does she see for favourable—in the UK’s opinion—European interconnector negotiations for the optimisation of Europe-wide electricity supply and demand, given that the UK is currently marching away from the EU?

On storage, given the Government’s extensive cuts to renewable energy initiatives, what funding will they provide for energy storage in the UK? In particular, is there an intent to put in place appropriate funding mechanisms, if they are not in place, for the two major Scottish pump storage projects at Cruachan and Coire Glas that are ready to go? What adjustment, if any, are the Government planning to make to remove the unfair transmission charges currently applied to Scotland, which played a part in the closure of Longannet? Of course, that is part of the reason we are here discussing how we tackle energy shortage issues in the UK.

Finally, we will not oppose the statutory instrument for the reasons that were so well articulated by the hon. Member for Southampton, Test.