News story: Independent review on cost of energy published

An independent review into reducing costs in each element of the electricity supply chain has been published today.

Building on the government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper, Professor Dieter Helm CBE was asked in August to consider the whole electricity supply chain of generation, transmission, distribution and supply.

The review follows the plan set out in July by government and Ofgem to upgrade our network to a smarter energy system, and the publication of draft legislation on an energy price cap to keep families’ energy bills as low as possible.

The government remains committed to the ambitious agenda of cutting carbon emissions while driving economic growth, as set out in the Clean Growth Strategy, as well as other recent announcements, including;

• providing up to £557 million for further Contract for Difference auctions for less established renewable technologies, with the next one planned for spring 2019;
• putting an end to households being charged unjustifiably high prices for their energy – Parliament will continue to scrutinise the draft legislation designed to place a temporary cap on energy prices and
• continuing delivery of reliable and secure electricity supplies through the capacity market.

We will shortly be seeking the views of industry, businesses, academics and consumer groups on Professor Helm’s review.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said:

Homes and business depend upon reliable, affordable power and the government is ambitious in its plans to keep costs as low as possible for them over the coming decades.

We are already taking significant steps to upgrade our energy infrastructure as part of the Industrial Strategy and have published draft legislation to cap poor value energy tariffs helping millions of consumers across Britain.

I am grateful to Professor Helm for his forensic examination. We will now carefully consider his findings.