THE Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, has reassured Humber business leaders that "the lights will stay on", despite concerns in some quarters over energy security and supplies.
The Minister enjoyed a heavyweight round table discussion with the area's senior energy industry leaders at a meeting hosted by the Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce.
The Minister's grasp and depth of knowledge was understood to be very impressive as representatives from Phillips66 and Lindsey oil refineries, as well as Lord Haskins, from the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, and several others reviewed existing supply issues, international oil price impacts, European and American regulatory issues as well as the exciting new opportunities for the renewable energy industry.
With the Humber home to every form of energy activity, with the exception of nuclear, and with the price of oil having plunged in recent weeks to a five-year low, the Minister reassured those in that sphere "that we've been in similar situations before, and have come out the other side".
The discussion noted that oil is mainly used for petrol and diesel, while gas is predominantly used for electricity and energy production, and Mr Davey explained that when Government sets its budgets, it builds in contingency and headroom for these types of price fluctuations.
With a general election looming, he pointed out that the Climate Change Act and the Carbon Energy Act were the two big recent pieces of legislation that this Government has brought in. He said they are expected to provide a long-term legal framework of stabilisation around which a general consensus on the future direction of the UK's power requirements can be modelled, in order to maximise future investment confidence.
David Hooper, the Chamber's external affairs manager, said: "It was pointed out that with eight of our nine nuclear power stations going off line in the next 10 years, the UK needs to find massive increases in electricity supplies just to stand still.
"Offshore wind, therefore, still has the potential to fill many of these gaps over the next 40 to 50 years."
All round the table agreed it was crucial to upskill and retrain the Humber workforce to ensure we can keep the investment coming with a well-trained and skilled local labour supply, as the meeting came on the day of the ground-breaking of Siemens' Green Port Hull site.
