Political reporter
The Secretary of Energy, Ed Miliband, is “considering” plans to introduce regional prices for energy that would grant discounts to households close to the infrastructure.
On Thursday, Daily Telegraph reported that the government was “ready to implement zonal prices, which would divide the country’s national energy market in different regions and finally increase invoices for households in southern England.
Miliband ruled out history as “meaningless”, saying that it would not collect a plan that led to a “postal code lottery” of energy price.
But he confirmed that the government was looking to shake the energy market, which said it could involve “zonal prices and renovated national prices.”
The regional price is used in some other parts of the world, including Australia, Italy and Sweden.
If it is implemented, it would be the largest energy market reform such as privatization of the 1990s.
According to the scheme, energy costs would coincide with local supply and demand. In practice I could lead to lower invoices in areas with abundant wind generation as Scotland than households in the south.
The scheme has the support of some energy businesses, including Greg Jackson, the head of Octopus Energy, the largest national energy supplier in the United Kingdom.
Jackson said it could make the general system more efficient and reduce the amount of network updates necessary to change the electricity where it is generated to where it is consumed.
But Dale Vince, the founder of the company of the EcotcyITY Green Energy Company and a Labor Donor, said in the today BBC Radio 4 program that the zonal price was a “terrible idea”, since it could “tens of millions of British could Dow energy.”
Speaking before an International Energy Security Summit in London, Miliband said that the Government was considering options to change energy prices, but insisted on “absolutely no decision.”
“This is an incredible complex question that we are seeing about how we reformed our energy market,” BBC today of BBC Radio 4 told BBC program.
“There are two options, zonal prices and reformed national prices.
“Whatever the route that we go for my conclusion, the invoices have to fall, and they should fall in the country.
“We are going to take our time on this very complex and important decision.”
