UK Parliament / Open data

Energy Bill

Proceeding contribution from Baroness Worthington (Labour) in the House of Lords on Thursday, 25 July 2013. It occurred during Debate on bills and Committee proceeding on Energy Bill.

I thank the noble Baroness for alerting us to that. As I was saying, there is clearly an issue and a need for intervention. There are existing alternatives for the independent generators. Perhaps one thing that we need to explore is how we can strengthen those independent suppliers. Ecotricity was a very good example. It was set up to build wind farms but found that the way that it could build its business best was to have a supply arm creating its own form of vertical integration. It is a way of creating more liquidity and plurality in the market to help those independent suppliers to buy from the independent generators. That seems logical, so perhaps we can explore how those can be better balanced.

There are also aggregators in the market. One problem that independent generators face is that individually they do not have the capacity to employ traders. The big six all routinely employ traders for all sorts of reasons, and that gives them a massive market advantage from being able to enter the various markets themselves. Aggregation and the provision of grouped trading services is necessary to help to support suppliers. That is another area that we could look at in more detail to see whether something needs to be done to make it more effective.

Finally, if we find, once the Bill is passed and we are on the road towards a low-carbon economy, that independent generators are simply not getting PPAs, we must make sure that we are monitoring the situation closely. I hope that the authority will be given a clear direction to be listening and asking what is happening in the market following the Bill's enactment. I shall end on a hopeful note. If it then transpires that that there is insufficient liquidity and PPAs are not being granted, perhaps the authority will accept that it has not done enough to generate competition in generation.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

747 c553GC 

Session

2013-14

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords Grand Committee
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