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Energy Bill

moved Amendment No. 39: 39: Clause 41, page 38, leave out lines 5 to 8 and insert ““after subsection (1) insert— ““(1A) An electric line is a relevant offshore line for the purposes of the definition in subsection (1) of ““high voltage line”” if— (a) it is wholly or partly in an area of GB internal waters, an area of the territorial sea adjacent to the United Kingdom or an area designated under section 1(7) of the Continental Shelf Act 1964, and (b) it is— (i) used to convey electricity to a place in Scotland, or (ii) constructed wholly or mainly for the purpose of conveying, to any other place, electricity generated by a generating station situated in an area mentioned in paragraph (a).”” The noble Lord said: This is a short government amendment of a technical nature. The Government are putting in place a framework to encourage the development of electricity generation from offshore renewable energy sources. The regime we are developing will apply to the conveyance of electricity generated offshore by high voltage lines, regulated as ““transmission””. Once the regime comes into force, it will cover offshore lines of a nominal voltage of 132 kV or more. We have been consulting with industry stakeholders and other interested parties on the policy options for the new licensing regime. This amendment to Clause 41(3) introduces a new Section 64(1A) of the Electricity Act 1989 and ensures that our regulatory regime will apply to the right offshore lines. In particular, the amendment will mean that the 132 kV lines built for the purpose of transmitting electricity from an offshore generating station are ““high voltage”” and hence transmission, even if only a small proportion of the line is situated offshore. The amendment provides that an electric line built wholly or mainly for the purpose of conveying electricity generated by an offshore generating station is a ““relevant offshore line”” if it is wholly or partly in an area of Great Britain’s internal waters, an area of the territorial sea adjacent to the UK or an area designated under Section 1(7) of the Continental Shelf Act 1964. Without such an amendment, the definition of ““high voltage line”” in the Electricity Act 1989, as amended by the Energy Act 2004, would not cover a line of 132 kV or more connecting an offshore generating station to the onshore grid if the majority of the electric line was onshore, although that is the intended policy. The amendment will prevent the undesirable and arbitrary situation where the connections for similar offshore projects could be subject to different regulatory regimes depending just on what proportion of the electric line is offshore. I beg to move.