Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the security of the electricity supply for (a) businesses and (b) data centres in winter 2014-15.

On 28 October, National Grid published its annual Winter Outlook 2014 report, which analyses the current level of security of electricity supply in Great Britain. This includes an estimate of peak electricity demand for this winter, but no separate assessment is published for businesses or data centres.

In order to ensure security of supply for all businesses, households and industry, National Grid announced it will procure 1.1GW of additional de-rated capacity through Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) and Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR) for the winter of 2014/15.

DECC supports the decisive action taken by National Grid and Ofgem which will mean we have secure electricity supplies, even with further unexpected outages or a very cold winter.