ScottishPower will today become the latest clean energy investor to raise concerns about the grave impact a shift to zonal pricing will have on the UK's energy transition.
The firm's chief executive, Keith Anderson, will urge ministers not to “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” with botched electricity market reform which could cost billions of pounds of infrastructure investment.
He will tell delegates at the All-Energy trade show in Glasgow - including Michael Shanks, a UK energy minister, and Kate Forbes, the Scottish deputy first minister - that his company alone has plans to spend £30billion by the end of the decade.
It was reported last month that Ed Miliband, the UK energy secretary, was considering plans to introduce regional pricing for power that could lower bills in some parts of the country which produce more energy.
However, there concerns that the change will result in major investments in Scotwind projects being shelved.
Alistair Phillips-Davies, the chief executive of SSE, said plans to invest tens of billions in Scottish renewables projects would "all be in jeopardy" if the UK Government introduces zonal pricing.
While Mr Anderson is not wholly against the introduction, he will urge caution about making a fundamental change to the UK’s electricity system at a time when investors want clarity to back huge projects in areas such as grid upgrades, cabling and renewables.
Anderson will say: “Don’t tamper with a system that works. Policy uncertainty on big market reforms such as zonal pricing does not help in this regard.
“All it does is cast a shadow of higher costs. We want to get prices down but need to be careful reforms don’t unintentionally drive them up.”
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