EMR criticised by ministers

The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee has raised serious questions as to the viability of plans to reform the UK's electricity market

The government’s proposals to reform the electricity market will not do enough to attract the £110 billion needed to transform the sector and are overly complicated, expensive and lacking in urgency, according to the select committee.

In its fourth paper on electricity market reform (EMR), the select committee argued that proposed reforms discussed in DECC’s consultation on the EMR needed to be clearer on decarbonisation targets, do more to break up the dominance of the big six electricity companies and revisit the feed-in tariff concept to ensure the sector is able to attract the investment it needs.

The report, which shadow energy minister Huw Irranca-Davies described as a wakeup call, puts pressure on DECC to revise its EMR white paper, due to be published before the government’s summer recess.