Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser will raise concerns relating to security of supply in an independent Scotland during a Scottish Government Debate on electricity market reform on the 16th of May.
Attached below are some of the key points from Murdo’s speech (check against delivery).
“For any uncertainty caused in relation to EMR is as of nothing compared to the uncertainty caused by the SNP’s plans for a separation of Scotland from the rest of the UK.
“Now that is a case which has been made by many in the power sector over a period of time. It is also a case very well made in the publication just last week from the David Hume Institute on “Independence and the Market for Electricity in Scotland”, by Professor Peter McGregor and two colleagues from Strathclyde University.
“It is an excellent and informative academic report and I would commend it to everyone in the Chamber who wants to understand what the implications for the electricity market are from Scottish Independence.
“Far from the milk and honey picture painted by the SNP as to what would happen to energy in an Independent Scotland, the David Hume Institute report concludes “it seems likely that security of supply will prove a greater challenge for Scotland as an Independent nation than for Scotland as an integral part of the UK”.
“It also concludes that there is likely to be an increase in the cost of energy within Scotland post-Independence. There is absolutely no guarantee that the rest of the UK would purchase Scottish renewable energy, when they are able to develop their own domestic capacity in the form of new nuclear power or large scale biomass, or they can buy cheaper energy from France or Ireland.
“Any future Scottish state cannot assume the rest of the UK would be a captive market for purchasing Scottish electricity which could leave us with stranded assets in terms of renewable installations, and Scottish consumers having to meet the rising costs of subsidising these.”