|
Wednesday 26th September 2007
Call for evidence on existing housing stock and climate change EDF Energy is a major vertically integrated energy company, with 5GW of electricity generation capacity, including renewable and decentralised generation. We supply electricity and gas to around 5.5 million customers, and manage the electricity distribution networks that connect more than a quarter of the UK population. As a leading energy supplier we are deeply involved in the delivery of energy efficiency and carbon reduction measures to domestic properties throughout the UK, in particular, through the Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) programme. Therefore, we are very interested in this inquiry on the potential to reduce carbon emissions in existing housing stock. It is our company's view that climate change is the most pressing challenge facing the world today. We are fully committed to reducing domestic carbon emissions, and have recently published our Climate Commitments, including a commitment to reduce the proportion of carbon dioxide arising from our customers' energy consumption by 15% by 2020. However, while we can encourage and support our customers to reduce their use of energy, as an energy supplier our potential impact is limited and must form part of a wider Government led approach to support consumer behaviour change through measures such as energy efficiency grants. Furthermore, we believe that improving energy efficiency alone is not enough to address carbon emissions from existing homes, and decarbonisation of electricity supply must also play a key role. This is likely to be achievable at lower cost than some of the higher cost energy efficiency measures that are being proposed In support of this inquiry, the attachment to this letter provides further detail on a number of key areas of concern that we would wish to draw to the attention of the Committee. We hope that this submission is useful and can confirm that we would be prepared to elaborate on any of these points should the Committee require further clarification.
Director of Regulation
Attachment: Submission from EDF Energy to the Communities and Local Government Committee Call for Evidence on existing housing stock and climate change EDF Energy would like to draw the Committee's attention to a number of areas: 1. Smart Metering The introduction of technologically advanced domestic energy supply metering can make a significant contribution to encouraging households to reduce consumption of energy (and carbon emissions). By allowing households both to review their consumption in a meaningful way in real time, and to interact directly with their supplier through the meter, householders can be both motivated to reduce their energy consumption, and supported to do so. However, the current Government proposal to put an obligation on suppliers to provide stand alone 'real time electricity monitors' will not deliver all of the benefits that a roll out of smart meters could do. 'Real time electricity monitors can be used in the home to provide customers with an indication of electricity usage, but without a smart meter they cannot offer the additional benefits associated with two-way communication between the supplier and customer and accurate and timely billing data. 2. The Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) Since 2002, the EEC obligation on energy suppliers to deliver energy efficiency measures to UK households has made a major contribution to improving the thermal efficiency of existing housing stock. Now transformed from January 2008 into a carbon emissions saving programme and renamed the Carbon Emissions Reduction (CERT) programme, there is likely to be an ongoing obligation on energy suppliers until at least 2020, which can make a significant contribution to improving existing stock. However, a significant proportion (50% in earlier programmes and now 40%) of this carbon reduction programme has to be targeted at households on means tested benefits (called the Priority Group), in order to address perceived issues of social equity. This means that a disproportionally high percentage of the UK's largest domestic household carbon abatement programme is being directed at households who generally use the least energy, and create the least carbon emissions. This carbon reduction programme is therefore being significantly undermined by trying to achieve both social and environmental objectives. We believe that the Committee should review the level of carbon savings that could be achieved with the same investment under CERT if it could be more accurately targeted, and capture more high carbon emitting households. 3. Treating solid wall properties Although the EEC/CERT programme has allowed us to vastly improve the thermal insulation of properties through cavity wall insulation, a significant proportion of the UK's housing stock cannot benefit from such insulation as there is currently no cost effective wall insulation solution for solid wall properties. This is widely recognised as a problem, and as an energy supplier with a large proportion of customers living in solid wall flats in the London area, we are particularly concerned that our customers have not been able to fully benefit from EEC investment programmes. We believe that this inquiry should advocate and support research into insulation solutions to address this problem in an affordable and sustainable way, possibly through BERR's new Energy Technologies Institute. 4. Micro generation EDF Energy recognises the role that microgeneration can play in the residential sector, but is keen that it is only deployed in the most suitable locations to ensure that it delivers a true financial and carbon benefit to the consumer. Consumer confidence in this emerging industry going forward could be seriously damaged if deployment is not carefully managed. 5. Energy Performance Certificates EDF Energy has been one of the energy suppliers to agree with Minister for Housing and Planning, Yvette Cooper, that we will link our delivery of energy efficiency measures to households whose homes have had an Energy Performance Certificate, allowing them to improve the energy efficiency of their home with subsidised insulation and measures through the EEC programme. This joining up of Government initiatives will create synergies and target carbon reduction measures in a much more meaningful way for the householders. EDF Energy 26.09.2007
|