Volume 35 Number 1 ‘Energy: the Age of Clean’ - Steve Shaw, Power for People Peer to Peer Energy - Dr David Shipworth, UCL April 2018 Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology publications Committee reports on Energy price cap and Energy Security ENERGY FOCUS This is not an official publication of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. It has not been approved by either House or its committees. All-Party Parliamentary Groups are informal groups of Members of both Houses with a common interest in particular issues. The views expressed in Energy Focus are those of the individual organisations and contributors and do not necessarily represent the views held by the All-Party Parlia- mentary Group for Energy Studies. The journal of The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies Established in 1980, the Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies remains the only All-Party Parliamentary Group representing the entire energy industry. We champion cross-sector energy research and development. The Group’s membership is comprised of over 100 parliamentarians, 100 associate bodies from the private, public and CHAIRMAN’S charity sectors and a range of individual members. Published three times a year, Energy Focus records the Group’s activities, tracks key energy and environmental developments through parliament, presents articles from leading industry contributors and provides insight into the views and interests of both parliamentarians and officials. FOREWORD Executive Council Chairman Ian Liddell-Grainger MP Officers Julie Elliott MP | James Heappey MP | Rt Hon Lord Hunt of Kings Heath OBE | Ian Lavery MP Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan | Lord Oxburgh | Neil Parish MP | Lord Redesdale | Lord Skelmersdale Membership Lead Robert Lane CBE Executive Council Christopher Chope OBE MP | Martin Fry | Ian Graves | Dr Simon Harrison Louise Kingham OBE | Joan MacNaughton CB | Paul Needley | Albert Owen MP | Michael Roberts OBE | Ruth Thompson OBE Stephen Vaughan | Barbara Vest | Simon Virley | Graham Ward CBE | John Wybrew OBE Disclaimer: The views expressed in Energy Focus are those of individual organisations and contributors and do not necessarily represent the views held by members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies. Contents Foreword 3 Welcome to the first edition of Energy Focus in 2018 which shows the activities of the All-Party Ian Liddell–Grainger MP, Chairman of PGES Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies, it is always a busy session at the beginning of a new Parliamentary year, with the addition of a reshuffle as MPs returned from the constituencies. The Age of Clean 4 Steve Shaw - Director, Power for People Those tectonic plates of politics continue to move and international relations are at fever pitch. More predictably, in Europe, we are due an Italian election whilst Brexit will continue to suck the Peer-to-Peer Energy 6 energy out of British politics. Although the deadline is March 2019, this is the year during which David Shipworth - Professor of Energy with Built Environment at the UCL Energy Institute the real action will take place. In addition, further afield, Russia and both Mexico and Brazil have Presidential elections, the outcome of only one of those being a foregone conclusion. Africa will Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology 8 POSTbrief No 27 January 2018 - Topics of Interest: Energy be learning how Zimbabwe can continue without Robert Mugabe, whether South Africa will have a stable successor to Zuma and if elections will take place in Congo. Meanwhile elections in Iraq POSTnote 565, Decarbonising the Gas Grid 10 will be a proxy for other powers’ influence. However, the international political press is likely to be Published 15th November 2017 - By Malcolm Graham & Jack Miller dominated by events in Salisbury and the upcoming US mid term elections. POSTnote 569, Overseas Electricity Interconnection 11 In Energy Focus, you will find the reports from our activities. Our meetings in January, February Published 9th February 2018 - By Jack Miller and March included presentations from Power for People and University College London and the Mayor of London. More importantly, in the last edition, we carried the Energy Policy Priorities Parliamentary Record 12 which continue to lead the topics for our meetings, you can find these reproduced on the inside Select Committee Statements, Reports And Inquiries back cover. BEIS Select Committee 13 For the next session of Parliament, we will approach Summer recess, with meetings in May and Domestic Gas & Electricty Tariff Cap the Summer Reception at the end of June. Details of these are already posted on our website, Lords EU Energy & Environment Sub Committee 16 which is worth checking regularly www.pges.org.uk. I look forward to being able to welcome you to Brexit: Energy Security these meetings. Oral Questions 18 The remainder of the year will undoubtedly bring us more surprises, but I am sure that the Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies, along with its members, will be leading energy policy discussion. Legislation 19 Ian Liddell-Grainger MP ISSN 0265-1734 For non-members, annual subscription rate is £65.00, single copies £27.00 Chairman, PGES Members receive a complimentary copy as part of membership to the Group Copyright 2016 An All-Party Parliamentary Group Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies. All rights reserved. None of the articles or addresses in this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, by any means., electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the Copyright owner. 2 Printed in Great Britain by First Colour Ltd, London. 3 set-up costs would be so great Meanwhile subsidies for clean are falling costs and business that the business would never be energy are decreasing and those appetite for it. Every single local ENERGY: started. This is the reality for UK for energy efficiency were only person could object to a proposed renewable energy. £893 million in 2014-2015, i.e. fracking site but can still be more than 25 times smaller than overruled by the government, THE AGE OF CLEAN Currently renewable generators the fossil fuel subsidy of 2015. whilst a proposed onshore wind sell their electricity to the grid We recommend that a new energy site could be stopped by the for around 4p/kWh (pence per subsidy policy is established objection of that same person. kilowatt-hour) whilst customers with the purpose of addressing This is a glaring inconsistency. are paying around 14p/kWh. To the current subsidy imbalance, We recommend that, with become electricity suppliers, achieving the “radical shift away the exception of national i.e. to sell to customers and not from dependence on fossil fuels” infrastructure projects, all to simply feed into the grid, a called for by the Secretary of proposed sites relating to Steve Shaw, Director, generator must obtain a supply State and ensuring that the renewable energy be determined licence from Ofgem. The costs government meets the carbon at a local level and that new Power for People and complexity of becoming budgets set by the Committee on projects cannot be vetoed or [email protected] a licensed supplier are for a Climate Change. blocked by one person or a very national supplier. This means small group of people. community organisations and local businesses that could be investing A Merit Oder System JANUARY SPEAKER MEETING in building local renewable Energy Efficiency generation are not doing so. The UK’s energy system has no mechanism in place to ensure Energy saving creates jobs, saves We recommend that a right that clean energy that is produced lives and reduces wastage. The vast to local supply be introduced is used before dirty energy. In majority of UK homes are poorly ensuring that set-up costs Germany, legislation ensures that insulated. Progress on ending are proportionate to a supply all renewable energy must be fuel poverty is going backwards. The Vision the deployment of renewables is from private companies and 190 operation’s scale. used by the grid first and studies Government figures show that not happening anywhere near fast communities have successfully have shown that the ‘merit order the number of households in fuel It is the future, a few decades enough. Only 24% of UK electricity bid to run their local electricity The Local Energy Bill that we effect’ has lowered prices there. poverty in England alone rose from from now. The UK uses close is from renewables. Meanwhile 4.5 grid. Many of these community- have drafted is a first attempt at 2.35 million in 2013 to 2.38 million to 100% clean energy. Most million UK households are in fuel owned grid operators and a mechanism that would allow We recommend that a merit in 2014 and again to 2.5 million of this energy is owned and poverty and our energy system’s suppliers offer cheaper tariffs electricity generators to become order system be established in in 2015. supplied by smaller companies security is threatened by its and are fuelling local prosperity. local suppliers. It tasks Ofgem the UK, ensuring that electricity and community organisations. reliance on fossil fuels. Over half of the clean electricity with setting up the local supplier generated from renewable The Committee on Climate Change People and their towns, cities generation infrastructure in licence process so local suppliers sources is used before energy has reported that, “Heating and and regions enjoy the benefits Germany is owned by citizens. face set-up costs and complexity generated from other sources. hot water for UK buildings make and resilience that this brings to Global Inspiration: Germany’s Renewable Energy Act proportionate to the scale of This system should also ensure up 40% of our energy consumption local economies. The lights stay the USA and Germany has set up a merit order system their operation.