An energy minister has expressed confidence that the UK will improve its post-Brexit energy trading relationships with the EU.
Giving evidence to MPs, nuclear and renewables minister Andrew Bowie said the UK’s energy relationships with neighbouring European states are “vitally important” and that he was due to meet his counterparts in Belgium, the EU and the Netherlands.
“Following our immediate departure (from the EU), relations were strained across whole host of areas, including energy, but those relations are in a much better place and I’m expecting them to continue to improve and develop our plans together,” Bowie said.
Referring to the EU-UK agreement on post-Brexit trading relations, Bowie said: “I look forward to moving the chapter on energy in the TCA (Trade and Co-operation Agreement) to where it should be. One of the areas of greatest concern that we haven’t moved that forward to where it should be.”
Bowie told the House of Commons energy security and net zero committee that he would seek to “allay concerns” about cross-border electricity trading arrangements, which are helping to hold up the delivery of several interconnectors between the EU and the UK.
These worries were a factor in Ofgem’s recent interim decision not to give the award ‘cap and collar’ contracts to a host of interconnector projects.
The TCA, which was agreed on New Year’s Eve 2019 and is nearing its five-year review, permits tariff-free trade in electricity between the EU and Great Britain but with greater friction than was the case when the latter was part of the single European energy market.
But Brexit had not undermined the UK’s energy security, Bowie said: “We’ve been able to invest and be much more flexible in terms of what we can invest in terms of technologies than other member states of the EU and been able to move faster because we are not in a 27-nation bloc.”
He also said the proposed Xlinks interconnector with Morocco could not be included in the UK’s electricity projections because delivery of the project is not “entirely within the gift” of the UK and relies on other countries.
However, Bowie said that the government is “very supportive” of the project and “wants it to succeed”.
Bowie was giving evidence to the committee for its ongoing inquiry into the UK’s future energy technology mix.