Recommendation 17

We questioned the Department as to how it is planning to protect consumers and taxpayers from the cost of decarbonising the power sector, particularly when a challenge of proceeding quickly is that deploying nascent technologies before there is a competitive market for them, requires taxpayer support. The Department told us that it is seeking to achieve its objective at least cost to the consumer, but confirmed that nascent technologies such as CCUS and small nuclear reactors will result in significant cost for both taxpayers and energy bill payers. It added that bill payers are not currently paying anything up-front for renewables, or the nuclear power station under construction at Hinkley.55 However, it confirmed bill payers would, should it go ahead, pay for a new nuclear power station at Sizewell before it is operational, using a form of financing called a regulated asset base that it believes would be cheaper in the long run.56