Speeches by Shanks.

“I absolutely enjoy it, and I appreciate all the questions. I will endeavour to be there.”

“In principle, yes, but I will have to look at my diary, because I am afraid that I am the last person who should comment on whether I am available at 4 pm next Wednesday.”

“I am not sure I would call the energy system a big lump of Jenga, but you are right to say that it is complicated, and it takes a lot longer to get things done than I would like—so maybe that is a metaphor that I will adopt. To be fair, it is a frustration within the industry as well. People want to move far faster to …”

“The profit lies across the system. We have a privatised system from top to bottom. That is not our design but what we inherited. Inevitably, there is a profit motivation. We have regulated monopolies that deliver much, particularly in the grid. There is a recognition that if we are going to have operators in this space…”

“We keep under constant review all the security of our infrastructure. That is not a one-off process when someone enters the market; it is a regular process. We are confident in the security of the infrastructure across the UK at the moment—that is a constant process—but we also recognise that it is important when anyon…”

“The big opportunity from what we are seeking to do is to get the industrial benefit that goes with it. To give you one example, the clean industry bonus that we launched alongside auction round 7 took £200 million of public investment and brought in more than £3 billion of private investment in supply chains. There is …”

“We have not set a target level because our aim is obviously to get it as low as we absolutely can. It will fluctuate given weather conditions, storage and a whole range of different demands in a particular area. It will change, and changes at the moment all the time. Our aim is obviously to get it as low as possible, a…”

“Different parts of it are funded in different ways. We have hydrogen projects that are funded through the National Wealth Fund or general taxation. Some of the costs of that on an ongoing basis are on bills, although it is worth saying that that is a very small amount. There is a mix depending on what we use it for. Th…”

“I see—sorry. I misunderstood your question; I thought you were talking about how we reduce the cost of the system. Much of it has been funded from general taxation. The sizable investment in CCUS, for example, came from taxation; it did not come from bills. On hydrogen, we have developed a refreshed hydrogen strategy, …”

“They will not drop to zero; we are clear about that. But they will reduce significantly.”

“It was just a west coast boy thing, then. We all went to Cruachan, the “hollow mountain”. We have not invested in those schemes since; this is the first example in 40 years. Long-duration energy storage is really important, as is a range of innovative technologies—not just pumped hydro storage, but compressed air and v…”

“I do not have particular forecasts of the impacts on bills, but all of that is about trying to diversify our system and store power, particularly the wind and the sun, for when we need it. Long-duration energy storage in particular was built a very long time ago—you and I will know Cruachan in Scotland, a pumped hydro …”

“It was a really important recognition, from the Prime Minister down, that there are no actions the Government are not prepared to take to help to tackle the cost of living. It was a very clear, targeted action with a really specific amount of money that could be ringfenced, moved from one to another and have a direct t…”

“I think I said there wasn’t a principled objection to us using data to look at how we might target support more; you have taken me slightly further than what I said in my answer. We have said consistently that we understand the argument for a social tariff. Our No. 1 aim is obviously to bring down everybody’s bills, bu…”

“I would need to look at the specific assessment; I did not see that.”

“If we plan them strategically, no. It is worth saying that data centres will also pay a significant amount for the electricity that is needed. It is not as if they are just a net cost; they will be paying for it. If we use them efficiently, there are ways that they help to reduce the overall system cost. There is also …”

“There is a live conversation about whether the powers are there. There is then a secondary conversation about how that power is used practically. Particularly, there is obviously a sensitivity around HMRC data, and the public would expect us to be looking very carefully at that. But we can use that data, not just for t…”

“That is the point that I was making: people would have a different view on who would be eligible for that, and that is one of the challenges.”

“Probably not, but it is worth saying that not all data centres are equal. Within that, there will be some really significant data centres, and some much smaller ones as well, so it is a question of scale. You will recall that we cleared out the generation queue that had built up with a significant amount of batteries, …”

“The challenge is that if I put that definition to a number of other organisations working in this space, I would get different responses.”