Clause 84 - Gas and Electricity Markets Authority sustainability duty
Energy Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Mr Michael Weir (Spokesperson (Environment & Food; Health; Rural Affairs; Trade & Industry); Angus, Scottish National Party)
I also found great difficulty in following the hon. Gentleman's argument. It seems to me that the amendment as phrased promotes policy, as it gives the regulator the overriding objective of promoting renewable energy. This would be the only place in the Bill that would place a duty for the promotion of renewable energy.
The object of this part of the Bill, as I understand it, is to increase the use of renewable energy to tackle the Kyoto targets on CO2 emissions and the like. With the advent of BETTA, the role of regulators will become more and more important in the UK electricity industry. If there is nothing in the Bill to promote renewable energy, the regulator will have no specific duty to take account of it. As the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, North-East forcefully pointed out, it does not matter what we or the Minister say in Committee. The regulator will not be bound by what we say if such a provision is not in the Bill. It is time for us to take a stand and say, ''We want renewable energy to become an important part of our energy mix and, to do so, we are putting duties on the regulator to take that into account.''
The Government have, to some extent, accepted that the regulator may not take account of renewable energy if it is not in the Bill. I draw the Committee's attention to what the proposed subsection (2) in amendment No. 189 says about distribution systems and their cost. For many years, we in the north of Scotland have had a hydro benefit, which takes into account the increased cost of distribution there, particularly in remote areas. If I recall correctly, the regulator decided that that could not continue under European law and wanted to scrap the hydro benefit. There were discussions and, to be fair to them, the Government intervened. An amendment to the Bill was introduced in another place to allow the hydro
benefit to continue, albeit in a slightly different form. Had their lordships not accepted that something needed to be put in the Bill to avoid the regulator going down that route, the hydro benefit would have disappeared, with potentially disastrous effects for the many people in the north of Scotland who rely on electricity.
In discussions, the Scottish and Southern Energy Group, of which Scottish Hydro Electric is now a part, told me that without some benefit to distribution in the north of Scotland, distribution charges in the Western isles, for example, would be astronomical. This issue is important: even the Government have accepted that something needs to be put in the Bill to protect consumers. The same principle applies to renewable energy, and I shall support it if the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown wants to press the amendment to a Division. An important principle is at stake.