Premium for Scottish renewables to connect to National Grid?

Following yesterday's Scottish Parliament debate on OFGEM’s Project TransmiT, M&C Energy Group analyst, David Hunter, was interviewed live on BBC TV Scotland's Politics Scotland programme. David explained the nature of the project, which is to review the charging mechanisms for connecting electricity generation to the National Grid, and whether existing arrangements driven by keeping consumer bills as low as possible need to be changed to deliver sustainability. In particular, it can cost 77 times as much to connect a wind farm in the Northern or Western Isles to the Grid as it would in parts of the south of England. One option is a ‘socialisation’ model which would apply a universal principle similar to postage stamp charging to level the playing field, however David highlighted that this was unlikely to happen on the basis of the costs that would be added to all bills. There is an argument that if the natural resource case is compelling enough then Scottish projects should need to stand up economically – and that all renewable projects already benefit from significant subsidy. However, David explained that M&C understood the frustration of those more remote would-be producers, and suggested that some concessions were likely to be made. The programme can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer for the next six days at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01g9l40/Politics_Scotland_18_04_2012

For more information on Premium for Scottish renewables to connect to National Grid? talk to M and C Energy Group