Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to future-proof the electricity grid by ensuring appropriate mechanisms are in place to secure supplies and flexibility enabling investment in a diverse mix of technologies; and if he will make a statement.

The capacity market is our main tool for ensuring security of supply. It has successfully brought forward a diverse range of new capacity, such as demand side response, renewables, storage and gas plants, to replace older capacity as it retires off the system. We are confident it will enable us to meet energy demand into the future.

We are working closely with Ofgem and electricity network operators to ensure market mechanisms are in place to drive investment in flexibility solutions, such as storage, where doing so provides value to the grid or is cheaper than building new infrastructure.

Ofgem’s statutory objective is to act in the interests of all consumers,?enabling the?investment necessary for net zero at the same time as ensuring value for money and continued security of supply for consumers. Ofgem ensures that the investments needed to maintain and upgrade the network are made through the price controls that regulate network companies.