Energy Bill 2007 - 2008
Energy is now dealt with by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), but this content will remain on this site until DECC’s permanent website is established.
The Energy Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 10 January 2008 and, following its passage through the Commons, had its first reading in the House of Lords on 1 May. The Bill has been published on the Parliament: Energy Bill 2007-8 webpage, where you can follow its progress through Parliament and find associated documentation. We expect the bill to complete its progress through Parliament on 26th November, and to receive Royal Assent by the end of November.
The Energy Bill will implement the legislative aspects of the 2007 Energy White Paper: meeting the energy challenge.
The Energy Bill will update the legislative framework by putting in place new legislation to:
- Reflect the availability of new technologies (such as CCS and emerging renewable technologies).
- Correspond with our changing requirements for security of supply infrastructure (such as offshore gas storage).
- Ensure adequate protections for the environment and the tax payer as our energy market changes.
The Energy Bill, alongside the Planning and Climate Change Bills, will ensure our legislation underpins the long term delivery of our energy and climate change strategy.
The content of the Bill is as follows:
- Offshore gas supply infrastructure: strengthening the regulatory framework to enable private sector investment in order to help maintain reliable supplies of energy given we expect to rely on imported gas to meet up to 80% demand by 2020.
- Carbon Capture and Storage: creating a regulatory framework to enable private sector investment in CCS projects. CCS has the potential to reduce the carbon emissions from fossil fuel power stations by up to 90%.
- Renewables: Strengthening the Renewables Obligation to drive greater and more rapid deployment of renewables in the UK. This will increase the diversity of the UK’s electricity mix, thereby improving the reliability of our energy supplies and help lower the carbon emissions from the electricity sector.
- Decommissioning of offshore renewables and oil and gas installations: strengthen statutory decommissioning provisions to minimise the risk of liabilities falling to the Government.
- Improvements to offshore oil and gas licensing: to improve the licensing regime in response to changes in the commercial environment and enable DECC to carry out its regulatory functions more effectively.
- Nuclear waste and decommissioning financing: ensuring the operators of new nuclear power stations accumulate funds to meet the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management costs.
- Offshore electricity transmission. Amending powers such that Ofgem is able to run the offshore transmission licensing regime more effectively.
- Smart Meters: allow the Secretary of State to modify electricity and gas distribution and supply licences to require the licence holder to install, or facilitate the installation of, smart meters to different customer segments, including the domestic sector.
- Housekeeping: Various provisions covering nuclear security and transfer of various regulatory functions to/from DECC.
Two further provisions were added to the bill during its progress through Parliament, as follows:
- Feed-in Tariffs: to enable the Government to introduce a tailor-made scheme to financially support low carbon generation of electricity in projects up to 5MW. The aim is that generators will receive a guaranteed payment for generating low carbon electricity.
- Renewable Heat Incentive: to allow the Secretary of State to establish a financial support mechanism for renewable heat, from large industrial sites down to the household level. The aim is to introduce a ‘banded’ system, similar to that for the Renewables Obligation.
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