5. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Public Sector Role in the Future Energy System

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:30 pm on 25 October 2022.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:30, 25 October 2022

Yes, thank you, Jenny. Absolutely right. I completely agree with all of that. There are some really good examples, though, around Wales, that we direct people to. So, Pen y Cymoedd, I don't know if you've managed to go up there, but it's well worth a visit. The increasing biodiversity around what they call the 'spotting' of the turbines has been exponential. It's actually quite astonishing. The engagement with local people who are now using the forest, where they didn't before, has been extraordinary, and the community benefits package has delivered real benefit to that community. That's a state-owned operator, of course, and that's the point, isn't it? But the real profit is going back to the state operator and that's the bit that we want to get our hands on, if you like.

This is just one strand of a large number of things that I've been trying to set out today. So, this is the large energy generator that we have had missing so far. But, that will not work unless we have the holistic network design—to use the jargon—so, the planned grid, as I describe it, so that we can feed it in properly, so that we can get the grid that we need to deliver people's needs and we can get people off off-grid oil, for example. We also need community engagement to make sure that the communities understand what is necessary for them. And that's not being paternalistic; I would have not the faintest idea unless somebody was able to help me understand what is possible in my particular home and my particular area for energy efficiency and so on. So, that's the area plans I was talking about; that's holistic planning for the future needs of the community, for its energy generation and for its efficiency—we need to do all of those things.

We need to have the small renewables right across Wales at the moment, very particularly, because they can sometimes avoid the problems of the energy market. Just to be really clear, right at the moment, with the ridiculous way that the energy market works at the moment, even if we had a state-owned renewable operator, it would still be charging its energy at the marginal price of gas, which is clearly nonsensical. The UK Government needs to move to change the market and it's been sadly very lacking in doing so. And, in the new Bill going through Parliament, which I brought an LCM on very recently, I was very clear that although we needed that to make sure that the people of Wales got some of the benefit, it does not do to the energy market what is required to be done to make it work. So, just to be clear, community renewables can deliver that because they can do it off grid, but we have to do that in a way that's both resilient and capable of joining the grid once we get a more sensible energy market running. So, sorry to be really technical about the different strands of it, but it is important that we try to operate in what we've got now in the best way, but also plan for the future, so that when we do have a better market system we're able to benefit from it in a way that makes the most difference to the people of Wales.