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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what support her Department is providing for the development of (a) technologies for the improved storage of electricity and (b) locally-based smart grids.

More than £80m UK public sector support (including Ofgem innovation funding) has been committed to energy storage research, development and demonstration activities since 2012, which is helping to drive down the costs of storage and bring new technologies closer to market. The Department has provided more than £18m of innovation funding for development and demonstration storage technologies; including funding for four technology demonstration projects.

We are facilitating the deployment of a smart grid through:

• Rolling out smart meters which are an integral part of a smart grid;
• The DECC-Ofgem Smart Grid Forum with a range of active workstreams to remove barriers to smart grid deployment.