The Westminster Government’s Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has announced that it does not intend to use its legal powers under the 2004 Energy Act to reduce National Grid transmission charges for renewable energy generators in Scotland’s islands. This position has been adopted despite the fact that Section 185 of the 2004 Act was actually written to allow statutory flexibility in the case of Scotland’s islands. (See yesterday’s news item with details of the BERR statement.)

Energy Minister, Jim Mather, Argyll’s constituency MSP, is angered by the announcement. Coming with the Vestas decision to close its subsidised plant at Campbeltown and move to the Isle of Wight – a move in which the UK Government had a role – this is a major blow to Scotland’s target of having 50% of its energy coming from renewable sources by 2020.

Each side in the dispute sees the situation differently. BERR say that there may be a ‘marginal’ case for capping transmission charges in the Western Isles and that no final decision on this specific instance has yet been made. Mr Mather describes as ‘unanswerable’ the case made for Scotland as a whole being given a fiscal regime consistent with that of the rest of the UK and being free from the current penalty. Saying that he was ‘deeply, deeply disappointed’ by this decision, he rammed home the point that actions like this, increasing energy prices and slowing the pace of development of renewables, sit strangely with a public commitment to put the brakes on climate change.

The Minister yesterday held talks on the situation over the planned Vestas closure at Campbeltown, saying: ‘I want to see how we can get more collaboration with them and their workforce, and other engineering interests in Scotland, to see what can be done on-site.’

The previous Scottish Executive paid the piper on setting Vestas up in Kintyre. The question is whether the current Scottish government can call the tune.

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