Electricity market reforms could face parliamentary delay

Update: The Department of Energy and Climate Change has strongly denied any delays to the Energy Bill.

Government is reportedly set to delay the much-anticipated electricity bill designed to attract increased investment in energy and help diversify the mix of generation technologies, particularly encouraging low-carbon methods.

The Electricity Market Reform White Paper (EMR) was first published in July 2011 and promised to invest £110 billion in revamping the UK’s electricity generation infrastructure. The EMR indicated that the UK would reach its carbon commitments by replacing nearly one-quarter of the country’s outdated power generation portfolio with new solar, wind, nuclear, gas and coal power stations.

However, the bill had come under scrutiny recently over apparent plans to ‘subsidise’ nuclear technology, the rigour of the proposed carbon floor pricing and the cost to UK bill payers of supporting the paper’s proposals. 

The BBC reports that Government is delaying the introduction of legislation to free up more time for House of Lords reform, which is anticipated to require a large amount of time.  

According to the James Landale: “Sources said it was ‘not clear yet’ when a bill would be published but they expected a ‘legislative happening’ sometime in the next parliamentary session.”

Responding to the report, Juliet Davenport, CEO of electricity supplier Good Energy, said: “Any delays to the investment that our energy market so badly needs clearly isn’t in the best interests of energy consumers and businesses.

“But the reality is that serious questions were already being asked about the complexity of the government’s plans and whether they would attract the necessary investment. Government should use this opportunity to get its reforms right, so that we can keep the lights on using the renewable resources we have here in the UK – British sun and British wind — and free our market from its dependence on imported fossil fuels which have been pushing prices up.”

A DECC spokesperson refuted the BBC's report stating: “This is categorically untrue. We have said for some time that we intend to legislate for electricity market reform in the forthcoming session of Parliament”.