Speeches by Young.

“Thank you, Chair. I will ask about corporate power purchase agreements. Obviously both PPAs and CfDs allow developers to mitigate revenue uncertainty by locking in long-term prices. If a CfD price is competitive why is it so rare to see developers pursuing PPAs instead?”

“Is that something you can only identify after the fact?”

“How do you identify bad energy trading in this context?”

“How would you do that?”

“We cannot just immediately turn it off?”

“Okay. Thank you. If I could turn to Michael Grubb then. You have already talked about some of the ways we could change—if gas is going to stay in our generating mix for some time, which is the assumption, You have already talked about some of the ways its economics might be regulated so that bills can come down. Do you…”

“If you were to, for example, have new pipelines and significantly increase the proportion of pipeline imports or you were looking at domestic offshore or shale supplies or any of those things it would not make any difference to this question. Would the LNG price still be the driver?”

“It feels to me that whatever the situation is, changing the mix might have a very small effect because we are one small part of the market on worldwide gas price, but LNG is always going to be the driver of the price.”

“If we were to build storage instead, the LNG price would still matter but we would have more control over when we were buying it.”

“I think one of you said that the wholesale gas price is very dependent on the LNG price. Presumably, it does make a significant difference to the cost of energy in Great Britain whether the gas comes from LNG, pipeline imports, domestic offshore or shale, or does it not because LNG is going to drive the price regardles…”

“If I could start with Tom, please. Michael Grubb said that if gas prices go way down, bills will get quite a lot cheaper. Although what we are seeing at the moment is wholesale gas prices are lower and less volatile than they were earlier, but consumers are not seeing a significant reduction in the price cap. Why is th…”

“If we were to build storage instead, the LNG price would still matter but we would have more control over when we were buying it.”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered consumer-led flexibility for a just transition. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. We have a problem in this country—one that is hitting all our constituents in the pocket, while wasting electricity and pushing up carbon emissions. At the root of th…”

“I will not test everyone’s patience either. I thank everyone for their contributions. Between us, we have highlighted not just the potential for lowering bills but, as the hon. Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson) explained, the benefits for local economies through the generation of good, clean energ…”

“I absolutely agree, and I am coming to those points. The Government have set out a clean flexibility road map, and E.ON has found that 84% of people want more control over energy, so what is the catch? It might be said that this is all well and good for affluent consumers, who can afford the smart technology—the electr…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. Some 4,497 of my constituents signed the petition, and I thank the many who took the time to write to me to explain their concerns. They believe that a mandatory digital ID threatens our right to privacy while doing nothing to address the Government’s stated a…”

“You talked earlier about the citizens’ panel that you ran. I think you said it was valuable. Would you like to briefly explain why you thought it was valuable and explain whether you would like to do more work in this area? If so, what would be the implications for your resourcing?”

“I am feeling that you have all got reasons not to; it is not your remit.”

“Briefly before we finish, I think you alluded to this already, but the opposition to energy infrastructure that you often see, do you think that would be reduced if it is more closely linked to reduced energy bills, if people could see the link between providing that infrastructure and—”

“Emma, do you want to come in?”