Speeches by Hobhouse.

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick) on securing this very important debate. In 2018, I introduced the upskirting Bill, the Voyeurism (Offences) Bill. At the time, an alarming number of men did not consider it harassment or an offence to upskirt a female. Too often, behaviours such as upskirti…”

“Is the hon. Member not absolutely shocked at how much this behaviour is normalised, and that we accept it as normal? When my male partner’s sons do not realise what happens, we continue to normalise it. Is it not time that we stopped?”

“The long-term plan is to move away from oil and gas and into renewables, but there is always the question of intermittency. We need flexibility, but at what cost? That is the big question. There are all sorts of solutions—battery storage, hydrogen—but it has also been argued that methane has a very large energy potenti…”

“In a previous inquiry, we heard that the network costs are the most expensive but also that companies’ profits are hidden in the network costs—at least that is what we thought we found out. It is important to get to the bottom of the transparency of network costs in terms of what is included and what is not.”

“Yesterday, I was at a breakfast meeting about short, medium and long-term battery storage. I learned that this is not something that would, for example, tide us over two weeks or so of cold weather. We are really talking about only a few days here or there; therefore, these batteries are not the answer for a cold snap.…”

“Anybody else?”

“Do we need to raise incentives for consumers to do that if the cost savings are so significant?”

“Fair enough, Chair. As I understand it, inertia is about the speed of the turbines in generating electricity; what will the main challenges be in maintaining inertia on the grid as we decarbonise, and can it be done without adding significantly to bills? As I said at the beginning, what does all this cost, and what wou…”

“Will consumers be attracted to tariffs where large smart appliances could be switched off by the grid operator remotely at peak times? Ultimately, we are talking about, “We don’t really want to think about it. I am happy if somebody else does it for me.””

“The long-term plan is to move away from oil and gas and into renewables, but there is always the question of intermittency. We need flexibility, but at what cost? That is the big question. There are all sorts of solutions—battery storage, hydrogen—but it has also been argued that methane has a very large energy potenti…”

“Very quickly to Alastair, if the savings on balancing costs are so significant, do we need to raise the sums on offer to consumers for being flexible?”

“Anybody else?”

“We were talking about the fact that the system should be abated gas—that is, it has to have a carbon capture attached to it. Does the cost calculation include the abation?”

“Yesterday, I was at a breakfast meeting about short, medium and long-term battery storage. I learned that this is not something that would, for example, tide us over two weeks or so of cold weather. We are really talking about only a few days here or there; therefore, these batteries are not the answer for a cold snap.…”

“We have slightly moved on but ultimately this is a debate about the distribution and transmission networks. What is the cost of upgrading the transmission network versus the cost of upgrading the distribution network? We are always looking at the cost of energy to consumers, and since it is so difficult to calculate th…”

“We were talking about the fact that the system should be abated gas—that is, it has to have a carbon capture attached to it. Does the cost calculation include the abation?”

“Fair enough, Chair. As I understand it, inertia is about the speed of the turbines in generating electricity; what will the main challenges be in maintaining inertia on the grid as we decarbonise, and can it be done without adding significantly to bills? As I said at the beginning, what does all this cost, and what wou…”

“Demand-led flexibility obviously depends on consumers engaging with thinking about electricity, and we have already discussed whether that is a good or a bad thing. Consumers have not engaged very much with flexibility, and uptake has not been very widespread. Has that surprised you, Sarah?”

“We have slightly moved on but ultimately this is a debate about the distribution and transmission networks. What is the cost of upgrading the transmission network versus the cost of upgrading the distribution network? We are always looking at the cost of energy to consumers, and since it is so difficult to calculate th…”

“Yes.”