Energy Committee question Ed Davey on response to power cuts
18 March 2014
Ahead of taking evidence from the Government and Ofgem, the Committee is inviting brief responses on its Power Disruptions Due to Severe Weather inquiry
Disruption to power supplies as a result of severe weather in December 2013, led to tens of thousands of households being left without electricity over the Christmas period. In January 2014 the Energy and Climate Change Committee questioned the network operators on their response to the power cuts. The Committee also wrote to the Government calling on Ministers to consider a direct financial penalty for Distribution Network Operators which fail to restore power to customers within a stated time frame. Since then the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published a review of the Distribution Network Operator response, which establishes 24 actions for industry and two for DECC to take forward. A separate review has also been carried out by Ofgem.
Call for evidence
The Energy and Climate Change Committee is inviting brief responses on the actions identified by Government and Ofgem in their reviews of the response to the Christmas power cuts. The Committee is particularly keen to hear views on:
- whether the actions identified by DECC and Ofgem address concerns about the resilience of the network to severe weather,
- the proposed actions to improve communication with customers, and
- compensation for affected customers.
Deadline
The deadline for responses is Tuesday 1 April, ahead of an evidence session on 8 April 2014 with Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
How to submit evidence
As a guideline submissions should state clearly who the submission is from e.g. ‘Written evidence submitted by xxxx’ and be no longer than 3000 words; please contact the Committee staff if you wish to discuss this. If you need to send hard copy please send it to: The Clerk, Energy and Climate Change Committee, 14 Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NB.
Submissions must be a self-contained memorandum in Word or Rich Text Format (not PDFs). Paragraphs should be numbered for ease of reference and the document should, if possible, include an executive summary.
Submissions should be original work, not previously published or circulated elsewhere. Once submitted, your submission becomes the property of the Committee and no public use should be made of it unless you have first obtained permission from the Clerk of the Committee. Please bear in mind that Committees are not able to investigate individual cases.
Publication of evidence
The Committee normally, though not always, chooses to publish the written evidence it receives, either by printing the evidence, publishing it on the internet or by making it publicly available through the Parliamentary Archives. If there is any information you believe to be sensitive you should highlight it and explain what harm you believe would result from its disclosure; the Committee will take this into account in deciding whether to publish or further disclose the evidence.
The personal information you supply will be processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 for the purposes of attributing the evidence you submit and contacting you as necessary in connection with its processing. The Clerk of the House of Commons is the data controller for the purposes of the Act.