House of Commons · Urgent Question
13 January 2025 · 20 other contributors
Opened by Andrew Bowie Con West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.
Andrew Bowie raised concerns about gas storage levels 2025-01-13 in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
Key points
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said.
Opened the debate
Will the Minister confirm the current status of gas storage levels in light of recent freezing temperatures? The MP raises concerns about the closeness to an energy shortage, blackouts, or demand control during the severe cold weather. He points out that Centrica issued a warning about 'concerningly low' levels of gas storage at 26% lower than this time last year.
Question
How does the Minister respond to Centrica's warning about 'concerningly low' gas storage levels? The MP also questions whether rushing towards renewables will lead to higher intermittency and the need for reviewing gas storage capacity.
Minister reply
The system operated as intended with resilience confirmed by National Gas and NESO. The push towards renewables is necessary to reduce reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets.
Question
Does the Minister agree that reducing reliance on international fossil fuel markets depends on clean power actions? He questions whether closing gas storage facilities in 2017 contributed to current issues.
Minister reply
Previous decisions by the Labour Government left us exposed. The only plan for resilience is the clean power action plan for 2030.
Question
What steps are being taken to reduce overreliance on gas and bring in an emergency home upgrade scheme? She highlights the impact of energy prices on families.
Minister reply
The Government inherited a system needing serious decisions for resilience. Steps include work on the warmer homes scheme to ensure insulated homes with heat pumps.
Question
Does the Minister commend the steps taken through the clean power mission? She criticises her party's closure of Rough in 2017.
Minister reply
The Government are building a more resilient system to reduce bills, deliver energy security, and climate leadership.
Question
How does the Government plan to address our reliance on gas, especially given their opposition to clean power proposals?
Minister reply
The previous Government's decisions on gas storage sites and energy policy will have to be addressed. We are committed to building a future-proofed system through the clean power action plan, which includes significant investment in renewable technologies.
Question
Can you see a role for modular nuclear reactors as part of our energy mix?
Minister reply
Yes, small modular reactors will play an important part in the future energy mix. We are moving forward with inherited projects and will make decisions to ensure robustness.
Question
What progress has been made since this Government came into power on plans to take forward nuclear power?
Minister reply
We are moving forward with major projects, including the small modular reactor competition. We need a robust process but will have more to say in due course.
Question
What steps is the Government taking to progress hydrogen for home heating?
Minister reply
We are looking at options for hydrogen in our energy mix, including its role in home heating and industrial projects. We need to ensure financial viability and technological feasibility before committing.
Question
Does the Minister agree that secure renewable provision reduces vulnerability to international market price spikes?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is right. We have outlined our clean power plan, which will deliver a secure and resilient energy system of the future, bringing down bills while delivering on climate leadership.
Question
What steps are being taken to de-stress the system by accelerating investment in long-duration energy storage?
Minister reply
We have announced a new cap-and-floor regime for long-duration energy storage, which will deliver pumped hydro schemes and innovative technologies. This is a significant step forward from previous Governments.
Question
Will the Minister update on support for heat pumps and insulation measures to reduce reliance on overseas gas?
Minister reply
We are committed to reducing demand through moving away from gas to heat pumps, which is important for energy system resilience and bill reduction. We will also continue working on insulation measures.
Question
How can the Government ensure that we are secure in our energy today despite penalties on oil and gas companies?
Minister reply
We are committed to building a resilient system through clean power action plans, including investment in renewable technologies. We will continue engaging with oil and gas companies while moving towards future-proofed energy solutions.
Question
We have heard in the House today about an over-reliance on gas, but surely, in reality, it is an over-reliance on imported gas. The forces of this Government seem to be driving us into the hands of foreign suppliers, and as much as 80% of our gas may be imported by 2030. Should we not support domestic sources of oil and gas, and back the 200,000 industry jobs found in constituencies across the land, rather than pushing those people off a cliff?
Minister reply
I take issue with two of those points. First, in the past decade, 100,000 jobs have already been lost from the oil and gas industry, and that happened under a Government whom the hon. Gentleman supported. The industry is changing. We are putting in place a robust set of plans to help the workforce into the jobs of the future, rather than burying our heads in the sand and pretending that the basin in the North sea is not super-mature. Secondly, even if we were to extract more gas from our continental shelf, given that it is traded on an international market, and the pricing is set not by us but by the international market, we would continue to pay more for it, whether or not it came from the North sea, so that would not deal with the pricing issue reflected in the hon. Gentleman’s question.
Question
Did the Minister assume that after the Government had robbed pensioners of the winter fuel allowance, gas consumption would go down, or are this Government so obsessed with their net zero policy that they do not really care whether we have enough gas to meet our energy needs? Does the Minister not realise that being reliant on foreign suppliers will push up fuel prices in the UK? How does he justify the fact that under his net zero policy, the Government are ignoring the fact that we have the resources to ensure security of supply?
Minister reply
The hon. Gentleman should reflect more broadly on our policies for dealing with the transition from fossil fuels and making sure that there is a robust system in place as we do so.
Question
This whole discussion underlines the importance of electricity storage, including at the battery energy storage system in my constituency, the Bredbury substation. How can we encourage more communities to welcome BESSs to their area, perhaps by considering community benefits, such as district heat networks?
Minister reply
The hon. Lady makes a really important point about energy storage in its various forms. Battery storage technology is moving forward extraordinarily quickly, and the short duration that we can get from batteries is improving quite considerably, so batteries will have a key role to play. Importantly, there is the potential for communities to drive some of that. We have been really clear in our local power plan that we want communities to be in the driving seat as much as possible, so that they can secure community benefits. We also want them to own some of the infrastructure.
Question
I have a certain amount of sympathy for the hon. Member for Widnes and Halewood, whom the Minister slightly fobbed off with his answer. Now that he has had a chance to calm down and check his notes, I will ask the question again on the hon. Member’s behalf: what have the Government done to advance the case for nuclear energy since they took power?
Minister reply
That is a very good question. We have moved forward as quickly as possible to deliver significant projects, but we have also moved forward the competition on small modular reactors.
Question
As well as improving energy storage, we should be improving energy efficiency in our homes. The average energy performance certificate rating for properties in Caerfyrddin is D; it comes fourth-lowest in Wales in that respect. The Government plan to increase the EPC rating for rented properties to C by 2030. If we are to meet that aim through insulation, what lessons can be learned from previous schemes, such as the ECO4 scheme, which has been beset with problems, including contractors carrying out poor work on the properties of older and vulnerable people?
Minister reply
That is a really important point. My hon. Friend the Minister for Energy Consumers is leading a review of some of this work, and will have more to say about it soon. We need a scheme that rolls out far more insulation to retrofit homes.
Question
In 2022, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we saw a huge Government subsidy for household energy bills and an extra £15 billion per year in additional support for households. I appreciate that gas is traded globally and that the gas price moves globally, but if storage had been greater in 2022, could any of that £15 billion have been saved for taxpayers?
Minister reply
That is a really interesting question that I asked myself when I came into this role. Logically, we might assume so, but we do not empty the gas storage and then wait to refill it; we refill it constantly.
Question
I thank the Minister for his answers and for what he has said so far. Approximately 330,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland are connected to gas, and there is also a scheme to enable social housing to use gas. That means that some of our elderly and most vulnerable people have no access to heating other than gas. How can the Government ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are guaranteed their gas supply over the next weeks, and how can the Government keep those in priority need at the top of the supply chain?
Minister reply
Characteristically, the hon. Gentleman raises an important point, and he has raised similar points with me before. It is important that the most vulnerable on the priority registers are prioritised for any additional support.
Government Response
Energy security is a key priority for the Government. The system worked as intended, with capacity to deal with market constraints backed by National Gas and NESO. Storage levels fluctuate but are healthy overall. Britain has sufficient supply and electricity capacity due to diverse sources including UK continental shelf, Norway, international markets via LNG onshoring capacity, and interconnectors. National Gas confirmed that storage levels remain healthy.