New Clause 30 - Duties of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority towards microgeneration consumers
Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill
5:30 pm
Gregory Barker (Shadow Minister (the Environment), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Bexhill and Battle, Conservative)
I will be brief. As the hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith has eloquently explained, Ofgem’s general duties require it to protect the interests of consumers. That seems fine in principle but the definition of consumer does not protect those who generate their own power, which is something we ought to encourage even when it is through a microgeneration unit connected to the grid. They are not protected because the definition relates only to electricity conveyed by large distribution systems. Self-produced electricity is by definition not conveyed by distribution systems, yet a plethora of rules and regulations in Ofgem’s sphere of influence affect the electricity produced by consumers. Protection for such consumers is therefore justifiable—especially in the case of ROCs, where Ofgem’s procedures contain some real difficulties as they are designed for large-scale generators. That consequently creates proportionately high transaction costs for small consumers.
The hon. Gentleman’s new clause is good, as far as it goes. The Conservative party is increasingly of the view that there must be a wholesale change in the way in which energy is regulated, and we certainly want to consider whether a more flexible and responsive system that encourages microgeneration and decentralised energy is possible. We will ask whether Ofgem should be completely transformed into a sustainable energy regulator or something far more suited to the 21st century, rather than simply administering a system that is profoundly of the 20th century—a coal and wire system that has its antecedents before the second world war. As the party of the future, we are grappling with that issue as we speak.