Energy is essential. We take it for granted that electricity and gas supplies will always be there whenever we need them. Yet when they are disrupted, the results can have serious health, safety and financial impacts.

Guaranteeing supply

Guaranteeing secure energy supplies is complicated and needs enough gas production or electricity generation, together with robust and flexible networks, in order to supply energy to the end user.

When things do go wrong (for example during severe weather), things need to be fixed as quickly as possible. But ensuring secure supplies costs money and there has to be a balance between the level of security and the price people are prepared to pay for it.

Powergen is investing actively in new renewable generation capacity as well as making sure our existing generation plants and networks are efficiently maintained. Over the past winter, we have re-commissioned plant that had been mothballed so there was enough generating capacity available.

Future requirements

Meeting future emissions requirements will mean that, over time, we will have to make large investments to replace existing older and less-efficient technology on the scale needed to maintain secure electricity supplies. We remain concerned that the current framework by which power companies like us are paid for the electricity we produce will not enable us to invest in new capacity in time to maintain supply security at all times.

Although these problems might not arise for a few years, they need to be taken seriously now to prevent problems in the future. We have been making, and will continue to make, this message clear to the Regulator and to Government, looking for opportunities to talk to them about the problems and possible answers.