WHITEFORD SECURES MEETING OVER ENERGY DISCRIMINATION

WHITEFORD SECURES MEETING OVER ENERGY DISCRIMINATION

Banff and Buchan SNP MP, Eilidh Whiteford, has welcomed a commitment
from the Secretary of State for Scotland for a meeting over
discrimination against Scottish power generators.

Speaking at Scottish Questions today (Wednesday), Dr Whiteford hit out
at discrimination in connection charges which threatens to close one
third of the plant at Peterhead Power Station in her constituency.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) announced in March that they will
be forced to close unit 2 of Peterhead Power Station in 2011 unless
there is a change in the pricing regime which has Peterhead paying £20
per kw for a grid connection while London power stations are
subsidised by £3 per kw.

SSE are being forced to pay an additional £7 million pounds per year
on their older generator which is rendering that part of the plant
uneconomic and if it closes it will reduce station capacity by a third
to 1200 MW and cost over 50 jobs.

Dr Whiteford said:

“We should say enough is enough to this anti-Scottish bias which works
against the development of clean, renewable energy in Scotland by
forcing generators to pay millions of pounds more to use the grid.

“Scotland has overwhelming energy potential but our future wealth is
being sabotaged by these unfair charges which discriminate against
Scotland. Peterhead has to pay £29 million a year for the right to
produce power while an identical power station in London would be paid
£3million to set up shop. This ridiculous position must be brought to
a halt.

“The transmission charging regime has already cost the country dear by
slowing up renewable energy projects and now it threatens 600 MW of
existing power at Peterhead and vital local jobs.

“The power currently lies with the London Government who regularly
defend this anti-Scottish bias. The previous Labour Scottish Secretary
ludicrously claimed that connection charges were not a problem for
Scottish power generation, but I am pleased that Michael Moore has
agreed to look at this afresh.”