Investing in energy

Ofgem has announced a £6.5bn investment to accelerate carbon reduction and improve customer service across the UK’s regional electricity networks.

Building on a £5.2bn investment for the 2005-10 period, the energy regulator is planning to deliver new and renewed regional networks between 2010 and 2015, which it claims will add less than £4 a year, on average, to annual domestic electricity bills.

As part of the plans, electricity network companies will be required to submit investment plans for 17 per cent less than their forecasts and cut their operating costs to 10 per cent below their forecasts to protect customers against unnecessary price rises.

The regulator said it plans to implement penalties for companies who significantly fail to improve their connections and customer service.

However, it has also introduced incentives for companies to connect up to 10GW of low-carbon generation to their networks over the next five years in order to reduce carbon emissions.