Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho blasted Labour’s ambition to de-carbonise the UK electricity grid as “pure politics” in a speech about gas power plants to the energy sector today.
Speaking at international affairs think-tank Chatham House, Coutinho denied accusations from journalists and the audience that energy policy was being used as a political football and insisted the conservative road map was based on facts.
“This is the entire point. We need to be able to have honest debates,” she said.
“We are the only party to talk about the importance of oil and gas, and our position is based on fact … anybody who tells you that we can just stop oil and gas is not just wrong, but naive.”
She added: “I think the 2030 de-carbonisation of the grid is pure politics and does not come from fact, consumers or industry and that is not the way we can create policy for our energy.”
Coutinho also referred to Keir Starmer’s approach to energy policy as a “‘Made in China” methodology.
Coutinho made the comments after she unveiled the government’s commitment to use gas-fired power stations to support renewable energy projects for “when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.”
She said: “There are no two ways about it, without gas backing up renewables, we face the genuine prospect of blackouts and other countries in recent years have been so threatened by supply constraints that they have been forced back to coal.
“There are no easy solutions in energy, only trade-offs and if countries are forced to choose between clean energy and keeping citizens safe and warm, believe me they’ll choose to keep the lights on.
“We will not let ourselves be put in that position, and so, as we continue to move towards clean energy, we must be realistic.”
The announcement followed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s soft launch of the policy in The Telegraph this morning, in which he pledged that the plants would “keep your lights on and bills down.”
According to open-source power generation tracker iamkate.com, gas provided the largest share of the UK’s power last year, at 32.9 per cent.
Under the plans unveiled today, new power stations built by private investors will replace the existing fleet of sites, many of which are ageing and face decommissioning.
With 15GW in gas generation due to come offline in the coming years, Coutinho committed to bringing a new tranche of plants online with a total capacity of 5GW to ensure supply, either through revamping old plants or building new ones.
The signal also signalled a likely change in the law to ensure that the new plants could burn hydrogen or utilise carbon capture and storage capabilities (CCS) in the future.
Coutinho said that the government’s £20bn commitment to CCS outlines the UK’s “world-leading” potential in the sector.
Labour’s shadow energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the plans were only deemed necessary due to “14 years of failed energy policy,” including the failure of offshore wind development, related renewable auctions and energy efficiency.
“Only Labour has a plan to make Britain a clean energy superpower,” he said.
“Meanwhile, under the Tories, the public will be saddled with higher bills and a totally unfunded £46bn national insurance black hole,” he added.
Today, Coutinho also launched the second consultation period on the Review of Electricity Markets Arrangement (REMA) programme, signalling that market reforms must favour locational pricing of power.
In her Chatham House speech today, the minister said: “This is the biggest electricity market reform in a generation.
“In this next round, we’ve kept zonal pricing on the table. This would encourage companies to build infrastructure closer to where energy is needed, and every household would benefit from market reform, which is why we are keeping zonal pricing on the table.”
Currently, power is a highly tradeable asset, and the British system of ‘spot pricing’ dictates that the price be set by the most expensive new unit of electricity, which sets the bar for the immediate demand price, no matter where it comes from.
According to the government, locational costing has the potential to cut up to £45 off typical annual bills per household.
Unlike the Autumn statement in November, the energy sector played a minor role in the government’s Spring Budget last week.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a government deal to buy back two would-be nuclear power plant sites from now-exited developer Hitachi and the extension of the energy profits levy on North Sea oil and gas producers.