Electricity (Hansard, 14 April 1994)

§ Mr. Eggar

In December of last year, I announced a number of forthcoming amendments to the Electricity (Class Exemptions from the Requirement for a Licence) Order 1990.

I have today laid before Parliament an order which will bring four of the five amendments that I announced into effect. These are: raising the amount of power that may be provided by small generators in certain circumstances without requiring a generation licence; removing the condition that an own-generator requires a supply licence unless at least 51 per cent. of the electricity from his generating station goes to qualifying customers on the own-generators' site; allowing companies to resell limited amounts of electricity purchased from a second tier supplier or own generator to franchise consumers located on their site; and removal of the requirement that most exempt generators who have stations over 200 kW capacity must notify the Secretary of State of their name and address.

My officials have also considered further the fifth of these amendments, to allow more companies to be included in a "qualifying group" of consumers that may be supplied by an own-generator without requiring a licence. I expect to lay a separate order covering this amendment shortly.

These changes will reduce the regulatory burden on small generators, own generators and consumers who sell on a small proportion of the electricity they purchase. Consumers should also be helped by the undertaking on pool prices and the sale of generating plant that the Director General of Electricity Supply received from the main generators in February. I also note that DTI figures now show that the average electricity price paid by manufacturing industry in Great Britain fell by nearly 7 per cent. between 1989—before the electricity industry was vested—and 1993. This is further evidence of the success of electricity privatisation.