Scottish grid will form part of new GB electricity network

A new electricity market, which will connect Scotland's transmission networks and the grid in England and Wales, will reduce prices for Scottish consumers and open up profitable markets for Scottish generators, the energy minister, Mike O'Brien, said this week.

O’Brien, speaking at ScottishPower’s Glasgow control centre during a meeting with Ofgem and the companies involved in the project, announced 1 April as the commencement date for the new arrangements. He also mentioned plans to limit the charges renewable generators on the Scottish Islands, and potentially in the far North of the Scottish mainland, will have to pay to the National Grid to transmit electricity to customers across Britain.

Two further measures will protect consumers in some remote, rural parts of North Scotland from disproportionately high electricity prices.

O’Brien said: "Scottish generators are set to benefit from the new single transmission system because, for the first time, they'll have real access to the wider British market, without the added complexity of negotiating and paying for the use of the existing interconnector between the two networks.

"For Scottish consumers, opening up competition will provide greater choice and see the sort of downward pressure on prices previously enjoyed by consumers in England and Wales."

According to O’Brien, the announcement will help unlock Scotland's vast wind, wave and tidal power potential, contributing to the UK target of getting 10% of electricity from renewables by 2010.

He said the most northern Scottish islands were among the most attractive locations in the UK for wind power and R&D into wave energy was already being progressed off Orkney. By 2010, 1,300MW of electricity could be fed into the grid from the islands, which is enough to power three quarters of a million households – more than Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen combined.

The deputy enterprise minister in Scotland, Allan Wilson, said: "Today's announcement is a boost to the renewables sector including our fledgling wave and tidal sector. We are committed to ensuring 40% of Scotland's electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020. By doing so we will cut harmful emissions causing global warming and create jobs."