Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether her Department is developing revised operation criteria to ensure that the System Operator moves away from selecting gas by default in the power system's balancing mechanism and develops greater use of battery storage.

Operation of the Balancing Mechanism is the responsibility of the Electricity System Operator, which has a responsibility to minimise the cost of balancing for electricity consumers.

The Government, through the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) programme, is considering reforms needed to electricity market arrangements to drive the necessary investment and efficient operation of a secure, cost-effective, low-carbon electricity system. This includes reform options to maximise the potential for a range of flexible technologies to deploy and operate flexibly, including battery storage.