111

House of Commons

Thursday 21 January 2010

Public Bill Committee

New Amendments handed in are marked thus

Amendments which will comply with the required notice period at their next appearance

Energy Bill

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new clauses

Carbon emissions performance standard

Simon Hughes

Martin Horwood

Sir Robert Smith

John Hemming

Mr Phil Willis

Mr Edward Davey

NC1

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State shall make provision by regulations for a carbon emissions

performance standard to set the maximum level of carbon dioxide that may be

emitted for each unit of output by any new coal fired electricity generating

station.

(2)	The emissions performance standard shall come into effect immediately on

passage of this Act and will be progressively lowered so that new coal fired power

stations will produce no carbon emissions from 2020.’.

Public Bill Committee: 21 January 2010

112

Energy Bill, continued

Emissions performance standard

Greg Clark

Charles Hendry

Gregory Barker

Bill Wiggin

NC2

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State may by regulation introduce an Emissions Performance

Standard to apply to all electricity generation plants.

(2)	In this section “Emission Performance Standard” means a restriction on the

amount of carbon dioxide that electricity generation plants are permitted to emit.’.

Green deal

Greg Clark

Charles Hendry

Gregory Barker

Bill Wiggin

NC3

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State may by regulations introduce a scheme whereby every

household shall have an entitlement for household energy efficiency measures.

(2)	The Secretary of State may by regulations require suppliers to add repayment

charges to household electricity bills over a period to be set by the Secretary of

State.

(3)	The Secretary of State may by regulations modify the Metering Point

Administration Service to allow access to the data for the disbursement and

repayment of the entitlement.

(4)	A support scheme may make provision about arrangements to be made by scheme

suppliers to ensure that, so far as is practicable, scheme customers receive the

benefits to be provided under the scheme, which may in particular include

provision about—

(a)	arrangements for enabling scheme suppliers to identify scheme

customers;

(b)	arrangements for drawing to the attention of scheme customers—

(i)	the fact that benefits are available under the scheme, and

(ii)	ways of applying for those benefits;

(c)	arrangements for providing the benefits.’.

Public Bill Committee: 21 January 2010

113

Energy Bill, continued

Transparency on energy bills

Greg Clark

Charles Hendry

Gregory Barker

Bill Wiggin

Simon Hughes

Mr Phil Willis

NC4

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State may modify—

(a)	a condition of the licence of section 11A of the Electricity Act 1989

(transmission licences and supply licences) to make provision on energy

bills for information on the cheapest tariff available to the customer from

their supplier;

(b)	a condition of the licence of section 23 (1) (b) of the Gas Act 1986

(transmission licences and supply licences) to make provision on energy

bills for information on the cheapest tariff available to the customer from

their supplier;

(c)	the standard conditions incorporated in licences under those provisions

by virtue of those Acts;

(d)	a document maintained in accordance with the conditions of licences

under those Acts, or agreement that gives effect to a document so

maintained.’.

Carbon emissions performance standard

Alan Simpson

Ms Katy Clark

Mr Graham Allen

Colin Challen

Lynne Jones

Mrs Linda Riordan

NC5

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State shall make provision by regulations or otherwise for a

carbon emissions performance standard to set the maximum level or levels of

carbon dioxide that may be emitted per unit of output by all individual generating

stations.

(2)	The Secretary of State shall review the emissions performance standard

established under section (1) no less frequently than every three years.

(3)	In establishing the level or levels of the carbon dioxide emissions performance

standard in section (1), and in carrying out the review required in section (2), the

Secretary of State must—

(a)	take into account the most up-to-date scientific knowledge about climate

change;

(b)	obtain and take into account the advice of the Committee on Climate

Change, particularly in relation to carbon budgets, medium and long-

Public Bill Committee: 21 January 2010

114

Energy Bill, continued

term emission reduction targets, and future emissions from the electricity

generating sector.

(4)	The Secretary of State must introduce the standard under section (1) no later than

12 months from the date on which this Act is passed.’.

Schemes for reducing fuel poverty: further provisions

Dr Alan Whitehead

Simon Hughes

Mr Tim Yeo

Mark Lazarowicz

Colin Challen

Dr Stephen Ladyman

NC6

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	In this Part “benefits” may include benefits other than direct financial benefits.

(2)	A scheme may include the provision of new or under-utilised technologies that

may, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, lessen the fuel bills of persons in

fuel poverty risk groups.

(3)	In order to determine the benefits of the technologies referred to in subsection (2)

the Secretary of State shall—

(a)	consider and report to Parliament on the following technologies:

(i)	passsive flue gas heat recovery systems (“PFGHR”),

(ii)	voltage optimisation technologies,

(iii)

standby down-powering technologies,

(iv)	dynamic demand technologies,

(v)	district network connection technologies, and

(vi)	such other technologies as he thinks appropriate; and

(b)	include PFGHR systems and any other technologies that he deems

appropriate pursuant to paragraph (a)(vi) above in the consultation that

he carries out pursuant to section (2) of the Green Energy (Definition and

Promotion) Act 2009.

(4)	In this section:

“PFGHR systems” means technology that can use the waste heat from

condensing boilers in order to heat water;

“voltage optimisation technologies” are technologies that lower the input of

voltage to electrical equipment from that at which electricity is currently

generated;

“standby down-powering technologies” are methods by which electrical

equipment is turned off, or reduced, during periods of non-use.

“dynamic demand” has the same meaning as in the Climate Change and

Sustainable Energy Act 2006;

“district network connection technologies” are technologies that enable

consumers to link up to lower cost and lower polluting local energy

generation.’.

Public Bill Committee: 21 January 2010

115

Energy Bill, continued

Energy efficiency schemes

Simon Hughes

Mr Phil Willis

Martin Horwood

Sir Robert Smith

NC7

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State shall ensure that—

(a)	all households in fuel poverty; and

(b)	such other households as he may specify,

are offered a whole house package of approved energy efficiency measures.

(2)	A “whole house package of approved energy efficiency measures”—

(a)	may before being finalised take into account the effects on a particular

household of any measures taken or proposed to be taken pursuant to any

other scheme to combat fuel poverty; and

(b)	must consider a householder’s energy needs and carbon dioxide impacts

as a whole and establish a comprehensive package of measures to address

them; and

(c)	must identify all relevant cost effective measures; and

(d)	must include all measures available at the time of assessment that are

suitable for the property and—

(i)	which pay back through fuel bill savings over their lifetime; and

(ii)	which are necessary to remove that household from fuel poverty

or bring the property up to Energy Performance Certificate Band

C.

(3)	The Secretary of State must specify a method of financing those works provided

that subject to subsection (4) no householder shall be required to pay for the cost

of those works.

(4)	If the Secretary of State specifies that any works carried out pursuant to this

section shall be funded in whole or in part by a loan scheme, then he must ensure

that any repayments for which a householder shall be liable must be equal to, or

less per month than, the total savings on the energy bills of that householder.

(5)	If a householder accepts an offer made pursuant to this section the Secretary of

State must ensure that the resultant works must be carried out within 12 months

of that acceptance.

(6)	The Secretary of State must take reasonable steps to promote the scheme to

households in fuel poverty with a view to maximising the acceptance by

householders of the offers made under the scheme.’.

Public Bill Committee: 21 January 2010

116

Energy Bill, continued

Reports and reviews

Simon Hughes

Mr Phil Willis

Martin Horwood

Sir Robert Smith

NC8

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The Secretary of State must report annually to parliament on actions taken

pursuant to section [Energy efficiency schemes] and any such report must include

information on—

(a)	the reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide, and

(b)	the reduction in the number of households in fuel poverty,

as a result of those actions.

(2)	The Secretary of State may from time to time, and in the circumstances specified

in subsection (3) below must, carry out a review of the scheme established by this

Act and the results of any such review must be laid before Parliament.

(3)	The circumstances referred to in subsection (2) are, if in the opinion of the

Secretary of State, the scheme is either—

(a)	failing to deliver sufficient reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide;

or

(b)	likely to fail to end fuel poverty.

(4)	Where the Secretary of State has carried out a review pursuant to subsection (3)

he shall ensure that that review is debated and voted on in Parliament.’.

Membership of the Ofgem board

Simon Hughes

Mr Phil Willis

Martin Horwood

Sir Robert Smith

NC9

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	Schedule 1 of the Utilities Act 2000 is amended as follows.

(2)	In paragraph 1(1), before “chairman”, insert “lay”.

(3)	In paragraph 1(2), after “member”, insert “and shall ensure that the majority of

members appointed are lay persons”.

(4)	After paragraph 1(1), insert—

“(1A)

In this Schedule a reference to “lay” is a reference to a person who has

been independent from the energy industry, the government and civil

service interaction with the energy sector for a period of at least five

years.”.

(5)	After paragraph 7(2), insert—

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Revised 21 January 2010