§ Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the planned margin of excess generation plant capacity for electricity generation at peak demand for security of supply is; and if she will make a statement. [82900]
§ Mr. WilsonOfgem does not set specific targets for reserve margins as it believes that the incentives in place under NETA and in the markets will provide participants with the appropriate signals for meeting customers' needs.
According to the October update of NGC's 7 Year Statement, the projected plant margin for the coming winter is 17.4 per cent, in England and Wales. However, this takes no account of some 7,000 MW of mothballed plant, a significant proportion of which could be returned to use for this winter if required. If just one quarter of the mothballed plant were to be included, the margin would reach 20 per cent.
The plant margin in Scotland is around 25–30 per cent, even with interconnectors treated as demand.
Monitoring the adequacy of generating capacity and the way that the industry is responding to market signals is one of the key tasks of the DTI-Ofgem Joint Energy Security of Supply working group, set up in July 2001.