§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on proposals to improve the Scottish electricity grid. [88052]
§ Mr. Wilson[holding answer 19 December 2002]: It is vitally important that there are no barriers to Scotland's renewable electricity output being brought to centres of demand further south. Following a report, which was published by my Department in February, into the possibility of building a subsea cable to take electricity generated in Scotland down the west coast to link up with the onshore grid system further south, my Department set up the Transmission Issues Working Group to consider the implications for the grid infrastructure of significant increases in renewable energy generating capacity throughout Great Britain.
The Working Group considered the costs of reinforcing both marine links and the grid onshore to bring electricity generated in Scotland to markets in the south and the transmission system operators in both Scotland and England are currently in discussions with their regulator, Ofgem, on the regulatory framework for making this happen. The report of the Transmission Issues Working Group will be published early next year.