§ Lord BEAUMONT of WHITLEYasked Her Majesty's Government:
What the letters ACS mean in their Answer to Lord Avebury's Question on "Electricity Supply: Maximum Demand" on 21st April 1980 (cols. 634- 635) and whether they do not agree that in the interests of open Government Answers to Questions should be as comprehensible as possible to the layman.
The Earl of GOWRIEThe letters ACS, a definition of which was inadvertently omitted from the earlier Answer, mean "average cold spell". The future 905WA demand for electricity for plant ordering purposes is estimated by reference to ACS conditions. Actual simultaneous maximum demand (SMD) is affected by prevailing weather conditions, and it needs to be adjusted to ACS conditions for valid comparison with SMD forecast for the same year.
It is regretted that there was a clerical error in the Answer given on 21st April. Actual SMD for 1971–72 was in fact 39–9 gigawatts. It is, of course, the Government's intention that Answers to Parliamentary Questions should be easily comprehensible, always allowing that some Questions, and therefore some Answers, are technical in character.