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As amended in the Standing Committee, further considered.

Clearly that is just a convention, not a requirement, and on this occasion it appears that the convention has been breached. Dynamic demand is a system whereby a machine—be it a refrigerator, a freezer or a microgenerating device—that is not necessarily to be switched on all the time can detect the difference in the current that is coming into that device. That means, and it is potentially very important, that where a current fluctuates it indicates the extent to which there is a load on the circuit in general—that is, how much current is going around the grid and how much is therefore being supplied and used or not used. Where a machine is able to make use of current intermittently and switch itself off when it does not require that current, dynamic demand technology enables that device to do just that, and that would mean that if dynamic demand technology were to be made available on a widespread basis for machines such as that, it would enable the grid to operate much more efficiently. It would no longer be necessary, for example, to bring in coal-fired power stations for one hour in every three months to cope with a peak; that peak could be smoothed out as a result of dynamic demand technology judging by an intelligent device how that current is going and therefore whether that machine should draw that current off or not, or should export that current into the grid or not. The cost of achieving that is absolutely minimal, inasmuch as all that is needed is to place in each device a small piece of electronic equipment, costing probably a few pence, which could be supplied with the device when it was installed. To all intents and purposes, therefore, it is not a serious cost in the way that the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst suggested. However, the benefits, as I am sure he would agree, are enormous in terms of energy use, not just in terms of the use of the grid, but in terms of the use of energy by the specific device. So the net saving in the generation of electricity in general and the use of electricity by the device that the person has installed in their house would be enormous.