Government plans to build new gas-fired power stations in the UK will cost households close to £200 each, analysts predicted.
Unveiled by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday, new gas plants will replace existing, ageing stations to prevent energy blackouts as the UK transitions to a zero carbon grid.
Sunak claimed the move was a “common sense” approach to net zero, despite the new plants not including any measures to capture carbon emissions.
Funding will come from the capacity market which is paid for by energy bills, so households will foot an amount equivalent to £178 each, Aurora Energy Research found.
Aurora’s Tom Smout pointed out that consumers were effectively “being asked to buy [...] energy security” as a result.
“The priority is to keep the lights on by having backup for the intermittency of renewables,” he said.
“An extra five gigawatts of new backup generating capacity is needed to keep the lights on. Each gigawatt of capacity will cost about £1 billion.”
Such extra capacity will be available as a backup to renewables when wind turbines and solar panels are not generating, according to Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho,
“Without gas backing up renewables, we face the genuine prospect of blackouts,” she warned.
However, critics questioned the use of fossil fuels to provide the extra capacity.
“It is disappointing that the government seems to be focused on fossil fuels as a stop-gap and not long-duration energy storage as a secure solution,” Climate Change Committee vice-chair Julia King said.
“The government must also ensure that there is a clear decarbonisation pathway for these plants, either through carbon capture and storage or hydrogen,” Energy UK deputy director Kisha Couchman added.