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UTILITY WEEK | 22ND - 28TH SEPTEMBER 2017 | 9 Policy & Regulation "The Tory party conference will be dominated by Brexit, I'm afraid." "Across the parties there is a very strong majority in favour of continued development of renewables. Very few fringe voices are questioning the direction of travel." "There's so much electricity capacity coming off in the next 10 to 15 years that we need to develop all of the low-carbon options available to us and that includes nuclear." Luke Clark, head of public affairs at RenewableUK Peter Haslam, head of policy at the NIA Policy & Regulation ity market auction results there had been a "marked change" in the debate on green energy, says Black. Luke Clark, head of public affairs at Renewable UK, believes the consensus around the need to decarbonise the energy mix has strengthened over the past year. "Across the parties there is a very strong majority in favour of continued development of renewables. Very few fringe voices are questioning the direction of travel." He argues that the dramatic fall in the guaranteed prices paid to offshore wind developers will convince many erstwhile sceptical backbench Conservative MPs about the "cold business case" for supporting renewable energy. "We need to invest in these new sources of generation and we are one of the cheapest options available," he says. The same is not necessarily true, though, of grassroots Conservative party members, whose hostility to unsightly turbines helped drive the government's decision to withdraw subsidy and planning policy support for onshore wind in 2015. Yeo, who is also chairman of New Nuclear Watch Europe, says that the upcoming Con- servative party conference is a good oppor- tunity for the BEIS (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) department's team to win over the party faithful to low carbon. "There is an educational role for minis- ters to explain the reality of energy prices to the grassroots," he says, adding that prior- itising value for money considerations could go down well with the party faithful And Renewable UK's Clark hopes that ministers, emboldened by last week's auc- tion results, will signal an open mind about subsidies for onshore wind and solar genera- tion. "If there was an auction now, onshore wind would be coming in as cheapest source of power," says Clark. The industry will also be lobbying at the party conference for energy's role in the government's industrial strategy, a final version of which is due in the autumn. "We want to be talking about the contribution that offshore and onshore wind can make to providing relatively low-cost electricity to UK business. You are not only getting cheap power but you are building up a UK base to service that industry," says Clark. And nuclear power will be under the spotlight at both Labour and Tory confer- ences, with environmentalists calling for a "The prime ministership is very fragile." Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit rethink of government support following the dramatic reduction in offshore wind prices thrown up by last week's contracts for differ- ence auction. The nuclear lobby will be heartened that BEIS secretary Greg Clark's biggest energy speaking slot on the Tory fringe will be an hour-long Q&A at a Nuclear Industry Asso- ciation meeting. "There's so much electricity capacity coming off in the next 10 to 15 years that we need to develop all of the low-carbon options available to us and that includes nuclear. There is a strong case for nuclear as part of that mix because it is on all the time," says Peter Haslam, head of policy at the NIA. Perhaps even more interest will surround Labour's position, given Corbyn's past scepti- cism about nuclear power. The leader's sup- porters have been emboldened by the party's better than anticipated general election vote share to push their agenda internally. However, the GMB union, which is staunchly pro-nuclear and holds a lot of sway within Labour, is expected to block any moves to water down the party's commit- ment to atomic power. Haslam believes that Labour will stick with its pro-nuclear line. "The manifesto was quite pro nuclear: his [Corbyn's] priorities are in other areas." The industry will also be looking for clari- fication on the opposition's surprise commit- ment in its hastily put together manifesto to bring the national grid and water companies back under public ownership,. This will be one of the hot topics on the party's confer- ence fringe. Another will be energy bills. Ofgem has promised to publish its proposals for a safe- guard tariff for vulnerable customers by the end of September. May has been criticised for breaking her election promise to cut bills for all customers. However, the timetabling of the party conference season means that the prime minister gets to have the last word. She wants to use the party conference speech to relaunch her leadership. Announc- ing legislation to cut energy bills, just over four years aer ex-leader of the opposition Ed Miliband unveiled his energy price freeze plan at Labour's annual gathering, would be a savvy way of distracting attention from her party's Brexit divisions. Energy companies will feel cheesed off though if they once again end up being used as a political football. Tim Yeo, chairman, New Nuclear Watch Europe INDUSTRY EXPECTS What key utilities policy points can sector leaders expect to be debated at the Tory and Labour conferences? Conservative l Energy prices l Clean growth l Industrial Strategy l Nuclear new build Labour l Energy prices l Utilities renationalisation l Nuclear new build