Clause 3 - Amendments of the Electricity Act 1989
Sustainable Energy Bill
11:00 am
Mr Andrew Robathan (Blaby, Conservative)
I should say that I have been a vice-president of the CHPA for many years. Regrettably, it is not an interest that I need to declare because I do not get paid for it—hope springs eternal. I instigated an Adjournment debate in October 2001 with the Minister's predecessor because NETA has had a dire impact on the CHP industry, and, at the time, was having such an impact on the renewables industry—although that has partly been allayed by the renewables obligation.
The hon. Member for Milton Keynes, North-East mentioned a few aspects of the problems with CHP. I want to tie the issue into—guess what—another Government target. Measured against targets, we can appreciate the dire situation of CHP. The Government target, which was set by the Conservative Government before 1997, was to have an installed CHP capacity of 5 GW by 2000. In 1997, the Government set a subsequent target of installed CHP capacity of 10 GW by 2005. We have yet to reach the 2000 target, which the Government accepted when they came to power, of 5 GW. Our current capacity is 4.8 GW.
That is immensely important. The hon. Gentleman pointed out that new CHP capacity fell by 95 per cent. between 2001 and 2002. That means that the amount of new capacity being installed now is miniscule. The output of existing schemes fell by 17 per cent. Some
£1 billion of investment in Government-consented CHP schemes is now stalled. The consequence of that and other things is that carbon emissions in the power sector have risen by more than 10 per cent. since NETA came in.
I return to the targets. In the previous debate, the Minister said that the Government were selective about adopting targets and that the whole apparatus of Government comes behind targets to ensure that they are reached. Well, there are two pretty plain targets that will not be reached. The whole apparatus of Government has not come behind them to ensure that they are reached.
Clause 3 would exclude CHP from the renewables obligation and largely treat it as a renewable. I am the first to admit that CHP is not renewable, but it is an efficient way in which to generate electricity, which is why it found favour with the Conservative Government and has found favour with this Government. If we are going to generate electricity—let us consider fossil fuel—it is better to do it in the most efficient way possible.