HC Deb 08 March 1983 vol 38 cc785-6
Mr. Gray

I beg to move amendment No. 12, in page 10, line 45, at end add—

"Production and use of heat and electricity. '(3) For section 15 of the Electricity (Scotland) Act 1979 (research into heating from electricity) there shall be substituted— 15.—(1) It shall be the duty of each Board to adopt and support schemes—

  1. (a) for the combined production of heat and electricity, and
  2. (b) for the use of heat produced in combination with electricity, or incidentally from its generation, for the heating of buildings or for other useful purposes.
(2) For the purposes of a scheme under subsection (1), a Board may, in accordance with a scheme submitted by them to the Secretary of State and appoved by order made with or without modification by him, exercise the powers conferred by section 13(8) for the purposes of that section, and section 13(9) shall apply in relation to the manner in which the powers are exercisable. (3) Nothing in subsection (1) shall require a Board to undertake expenditure in conection with a scheme which does not meet the financial criteria applied by the Board in relation to other expenditure of the Board.".'. We were pleased to accept in Committee an amendment tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire South-East (Mr. Rost), which imposed duties on electricity boards to adopt and support schemes for combined heat and power and the use of heat generally. This is now clause 16 of the Bill and it amends section 50 of the Electricity Act 1947, which applies only in England and Wales. In accepting the amendment we also undertook to table an amendment which would bring the duties of the Scottish boards into line with those in England and Wales.

The amendment adds a new subsection to clause 16 and amends section 15 of the Electricity (Scotland) Act 1979. The working is slightly different from that in subsection (1) since it is necessary to apply the powers to break up streets contained in section 1.3 of the 1979 Act to these new duties. The effect is the same.

I am sure that both sides of the House will welcome the inclusion in the Bill of those duties which remove any existing doubt about the attitude that boards should adopt towards CHP schemes and the use of heat from ordinary power stations.

I invite the House to accept the amendment.

Amendment agreed to.

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