Call for radical overhaul of UK energy policy
14 Dec 2009
London – THE UK can no longer continue to fret about its carbon footprint without giving proper thought to its energy security footprint, according to new think tank the Economic Policy Centre (EPC), which is calling for a radical overhaul in UK Energy Policy.
In a paper titled Securing our Energy Future, the EPC calls for a return to basics - putting energy security first and scrapping of “wasteful” programmes such as smart meters and the carbon capture levy. Other demands include keeping coal-fired stations open beyond 2015 until new clean and secure plants come onstream and a new annual ranking system that keeps track of the energy security footprint.
The UK should also set up a “Clean and Secure Energy Obligation,” based on Renewables Obligation but with 100% target by 2060 at a much lower buyout price and the inclusion of big impact technologies nuclear, large hydro, interconnectors and Severn Tidal Barrage/tidal lagoons, said the EPC – a group set up to promote research and debate among opinion formers in academia, business, the media and government.
“Britain has too much energy policy and it is back to front - it’s crazy to go on over-rewarding low impact, intermittent technologies while failing to secure investment for big impact, long lifespan, clean and secure technologies like large hydro, nuclear, interconnectors and a Severn Tidal Barrage or Tidal Lagoons, said Dan Lewis, the report’s author and chief executive of the EPC.
“This will only lead to even greater future dependence on expensive, tight supplies of imported gas and very possibly, power cuts from the middle of the next decade. All this because government has failed to prioritise and factor in the energy security footprint of its own policy,” continued Lewis, who previously ran the Economic Research Council and is a Research Fellow with the Centre for Policy Studies.
Freeze RI going forward for existing Power Purchase Agreements and reduce the buyout price to £12 per megawatt hour henceforth • Rename the RO the Clean and Secure Energy Obligation and include large impact, low carbon and secure technologies with a target of 100% clean and secure energy supply by 2060.
The think tank would also abolish a host of agencies including: the Climate Change Committee; the Energy Savings Trust; the Carbon Trust; the Climate Change Projects Office; the Office of Climate Change; the Southwest Renewables Energy Agency; Renewables East; Renew North; and The Wales Centre of Excellence for Anaerobic Digestion. Similarly, the UK would bin many “surplus” energy policies the Climate Change Levy; the Carbon Capture Levy and postpone the rollout of Smart Meters until 2020.
“Spending £9bn over 10 years and possibly much more for dubious gains is not acceptable and on the face of it is a dumb investment. Cheaper off the shelf solutions may or may not become available for Smart Grids and the Distributed Micro Generation technologies which go with
them. Far better to wait and see<” said the report.
These policy recommendations will not be popular to implement, admits Lewis. But, he argues, “we have now reached the stage, made more dangerous by a fiscal crisis, where the choices that must be made are not between good and bad, but between bad and much worse. It’s high time to
face up to the UK’s energy predicament as it is, not as we wish it were. Make no mistake about it: the longer we leave it, the harder it will get.”
