§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry as a result of the recent energy review, what discussions she is having with energy providers to ensure that account is taken of local security of supply. [55617]
§ Mr. WilsonI have requested a study into the resilience of the electricity supply networks in an emergency, in order to obtain reassurance that we have the best possible systems in place to avoid or minimise supply failure, together with examples of good practice in emergency preparedness. Our consultants, British Power International (BPI), visited all the electricity transmission and distribution licence-holding companies in mainland Britain during March, and will be reporting shortly.
DTI's Engineering Inspectorate has been dealing with a small number of cases in which consumers in rural areas are complaining about frequent interruptions to their electricity supply, and Ofgem has taken important steps to strengthen the incentives on distribution companies to provide a good quality of service to consumers. From 1 April 2002 a new Guaranteed Standard of Performance was introduced which will mean that consumers that suffer more than three interruptions of more than three hours duration over the course of the year will receive a compensation payment of £50. This protection is directly aimed at 'worst-served' consumers. Ofgem has also introduced an incentive scheme for distribution companies that focuses on key areas quality of service—the number of interruptions to supply, the duration of interruptions to supply and the quality of telephone response provided by distribution companies. Taken together these mechanisms provide significant additional protection to consumers in respect of the quality of service they receive from distribution companies.
The introduction of widespread distributed generation in electricity networks will certainly raise some technical issues not previously faced by electricity distributors. Close monitoring of developments in embedded generation is necessary by all those involved to ensure the emerging security of supply issues are identified and managed. Following on from the report of the joint DTI-Ofgem Embedded Generation Working Group (EGWG) in June 2001 www.dti.gov.uk/energy/egwg/index.htm, the Government has recently established a Co-ordinating Group, jointly led by the DTI and Ofgem, to monitor the implementation of the EGWG recommendations and to advise Ministers of potential problems.