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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of energy security in relation to the reported early closure of Hunterston nuclear power station.

Hunterston B has been generating low carbon electricity for more than 40 years. Over its lifetime, it has produced enough low carbon energy to power the whole of Scotland for 8 years.

The Capacity Market ensures security of electricity supply by providing all forms of capacity with the right incentives to be on the system and to deliver electricity when needed. It secures the capacity we need, including new capacity to replace aging power stations as they retire, through auctions held either four years or one year ahead of delivery (T-4 and T-1). To date, these capacity auctions have secured the majority of the capacity that Great Britain needs until 2023/.

Hunterston B holds capacity agreements for around 0.9 GW of capacity in 2020/21 and 2021/22. In light of EDF Energy’s decision to end generation at Hunterston B by 7 January 2022, we will have the opportunity to secure replacement capacity in the T-1 auction for 2021/22 if required.