Tag: Tom Greatrex

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-03-31.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what costs were incurred by (a) the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and (b) his Department with external suppliers (i) in total, (ii) with Deloitte, (iii) with Burges Salmon, (iv) with QinetiQ, (v) with Project Time & Cost and (vi) with other external consultancies on the Magnox and RSRL contract preparation and award between January 2011 and March 2014.

Michael Fallon

In line with best practice, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which is responsible for running the competition to appoint a new Parent Body Organisation to take ownership of Magnox Ltd and Research Sites Restoration Ltd (RSRL), has used external advisers to provide it with assurance and specialist advice on the competition and contract preparation. Between January 2012 and the end of March 2014 the NDA spent a total of £2,958,234 on external advisers: £106,389 with Deloitte; £2,804,845 with Burges-Salmon; and £47,000 with QinetiQ. The NDA has used no other external advisers. The Department for Energy and Climate Change has incurred no costs on external suppliers in relation to the competition

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-03-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many applications his Department has received for (a) one-year, (b) three-year and (c) 15-year contracts relating to (i) gas and (ii) coal under the capacity market.

Michael Fallon

National Grid, as delivery body for Electricity Market Reform, will run the first capacity auction in December 2014, subject to the passage of secondary legislation and state aid approval being received. Pre-qualification for the first capacity auction is expected to open on 4 August 2014 and the first round of the auction is expected to take place on 9 December 2014. Consequently, National Grid has not yet received any applications for agreements under the Capacity Market.

A detailed timetable for the implementation of the Capacity Market is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268629/Capacity_Market_Implementation_Plan_FINAL.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what forecast he has made of the effect of the Supplemental Balancing Reserve on the Loss of Load Expectation for winter 2014-15.

Gregory Barker

The Government has not made any forecast of the effect of the Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) on the Loss of Load Expectation for winter 2014-15.

SBR is one of National Grid’s two new balancing services, approved by Ofgem in December 2013. SBR and the Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR) will address potential capacity shortfalls in the middle of the decade.

National Grid is currently developing a methodology to determine how much capacity should be contracted via SBR. Once this is approved by Ofgem, National Grid will proceed with the procurement process.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the number of combined heat and power plans delivering more than 10 per cent of input energy as heat output.

Gregory Barker

In 2013, the Government reviewed the minimum performance standards for renewable Combined Heat and Power (CHP) set in our Quality Assurance programme. As set out in the Government response, approximately 70% of solid and liquid renewable fuel CHP schemes already certified to Combined Heat and Power Quality and Assurance (CHPQA) deliver more than 10% of their input energy as useful heat output.

No similar assessment has been made for fossil fuel CHPs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to his Answer to the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West of 3 April 2014, on what dates and with which representative of the European Commission he spoke about the future of UK Coal.

Michael Fallon

Ministers and officials in the department regularly meet with officials from the European Commission.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance were sanctioned for failing to complete their job search evidence form for the week of 25 December 2013 to 1 January 2014.

Esther McVey

Published data on sanctions is currently available up to 30th September 2013, with the next scheduled release in May 2014.

Claimants are expected to do all that is reasonable within full time working hours in any week to look for work and this is not restricted to specific days.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-04-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the quantity of biomass consumed by the one per cent of biomass plant that was below 1MW in capacity.

Michael Fallon

We have not made a recent estimate of the quantity of biomass consumed by biomass plant below 1MW in capacity.

However, based on modelling published in the Impact Assessment to the Renewables Obligation Banding Review 2012, we can estimate the theoretical quantity of biomass that would be consumed by 1% of total generating capacity. Assuming all the planned plants were built, this would give a theoretical maximum equivalent to around 150,000 oven dried tonnes per annum in 2016/17. This figure excludes potential capacity changes to plants below 1 MW as a result of the introduction of the 400MW cap for new build dedicated biomass.