Scotland’s Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has urged the UK Government to change their policy direction to ensure faster build of new power capacity, including renewable energy, in combination with increased storage capacity, following the last week’s market notification from National Grid of a shortfall in reserve capacity.
The recent Winter Outlook report by National Grid showed that capacity margins could be as low as 1.2 per cent this winter, resulting in calls for industry to reduce power consumption.
In a letter written to the UK Energy Secretary, Amber Rudd, Ewing raised his concerns that UK electricity capacity margins are worryingly low and the UK Government’s energy policies are exacerbating the situation.
“National Grid issuing an urgent request for more electricity shows it is becoming even harder pressed to keep the lights on this winter and highlights the complacency of the UK Government’s energy policy,” Ewing said.
“Scotland is an energy rich country and is the ideal base for the development of a range of technologies which could alleviate the situation, including wind energy, carbon capture and storage and pumped storage hydro. But this will require movement on policy from the UK Government to encourage increasing energy system flexibility, security, and sustainability.”