Clean energy sector teams up against network charging reform

Six industry bodies have called on Greg Clark to review the government’s plans and provide market certainty

Electricity pylons

The UK’s clean energy industry has teamed up to protest Ofgem’s proposed network charging reform.

BEAMA, the Renewable Energy Association (REA), the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE), Tech UK, the Solar Trade Association (STA) and RenewableUK have joined forces to call on Secretary of State Greg Clark to review the government’s plans and provide market certainty.

The charging reforms are intended to make the market fairer through effective charging signals, although the six industry bodies claim a number of the proposed changes could hinder the development of flexible infrastructure and low carbon generation.

They have identified significant issues with the decision by Ofgem to fix residual charges before implementing reform to forward charges – they claim this would result in at least a year with limited network benefits for flexibility and storage.

They suggest decoupling the targeted charging review from the forward-looking review leaves a big gap in the market which they argue would destabilise businesses.

Further, the proposal to extend Generation Balancing Use of System to distributed generation is unexpected and could not have been previously foreseen.

They argue this will render industry unable to adequately respond, a problem they expect to be exacerbated by implementing it in April 2020, leaving industry less than a year from the final decision.

ELN has contacted BEIS for a response.

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