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House of Commons Article

pa.press.net
Friday, 12 December 2008

Power blackouts 'could hit Britain'

 

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Power blackouts could blight Britain unless the Government takes urgent action, the chairman of an influential House of Commons committee has warned.

"The concern that people have about prices will be a picnic compared with significant numbers of power cuts," said Peter Luff, chairman of the business and enterprise committee. "People could find they are watching the telly and suddenly it goes off for an hour or two. That possibility is real. It still can be avoided but we are losing time."

The committee published a report which warned new capacity to store gas and generate electricity must be created if a "disastrous" energy crunch is to be avoided.

The report, Energy Policy: Future Challenges, said difficult economic conditions make it less likely that energy companies will make the necessary investment to safeguard future supplies. It said "it is the Government's job to ensure security of supply" and urged a rethink of its faith in the market.

The committee said there is a "high risk" that energy companies will not be able to raise the money to replace capacity lost when old nuclear and coal-fired power stations are decommissioned.

"Generating capacity equivalent to nearly a third of current electricity demand will be made redundant by 2020. It will need to be replaced," the report said. "Just as the Government has been quick to respond to the crisis in the banking sector, it must now take action to ensure investment in new capacity takes place as planned.

"The situation is now very serious and we believe that a simple trust in the market's ability to deliver without any intervention will see us facing an 'energy crunch' in the medium term. The social and economic consequences of such a 'crunch' would be disastrous."

The report said gas storage capacity needs to grow "if the UK is to avoid falling victim to even higher levels of wholesale gas price volatility in the coming years". "We think it likely that the market will fail to deliver," the report concluded.

David Porter, chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers, said: "We are fast approaching a 'generation gap' and about £100 billion needs to be spent on new and greener power stations. It is absolutely vital that the Government should always try to ensure that the UK is an attractive destination for investment in new energy infrastructure. If it fails to do that, the consequences could be dreadful."

A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokeswoman said: "We're taking active steps to put in place the right conditions to make sure we continue to get that necessary energy investment. The Energy and Planning Acts will also help us move towards the low carbon, secure energy supplies we need to meet our targets on emissions and renewables

pa.press.net
Friday, 12 December 2008

 

Carbon emissions targets not met

Carbon emissions from Government offices are not being cut fast enough to meet its own targets, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has warned.

The sustainability watchdog said departments were making big steps towards reducing waste, water consumption and emissions from road transport.

But while carbon emissions from offices were down 6.3% from 2000 levels - an improvement on the previous year's figure of 2.3% - they were not on track to meet the 2010/11 target of 12.5% cuts, the SDC said.

The data also showed measures to improve the efficiency of energy generation by using combined heat and power (CHP) technology - which creates heat and electricity at the same time - were not on course to meet the 2010 target of 15%.

Some 8.7% of electricity was produced by CHP in the last financial year, up from the previous year's 5.8%. However, carbon emissions from departments' road vehicles showed significant improvement with cuts of 10.3% on the baseline year of 2005/06, compared to 1.5% last year. And there was a dramatic improvement in cutting waste from Government departments with a reduction of 28.8% - already exceeding the target.

But recycling rates fell slightly to 35%, down on the previous year's 38.5%. And the percentage of electricity from renewables was also down, from 28.3% to 22%, the figures showed.

The departments which performed best against the range of environmental and sustainability targets including HM Treasury and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). But at the other end of the scale, the Home Office and Forestry Commission were among the worst performing departments.

The Department for Business (Berr) and the Department for Environment (Defra), which until October both had responsibility for areas of the Government's climate policy, saw their performance worsen.

But overall the Government is on track or exceeding all its target - apart from carbon emissions from offices and CHP.

Rebecca Willis, vice chairwoman of the Sustainable Development Commission, said: "It's great to see departments finally starting to prioritise their sustainability duties and make progress in many areas. However, there's still a long way to go - and it's clear that these targets must be the start of an ever more ambitious sustainability programme."

 

 

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