Responding to the update on energy market reforms published by the Government today, SSE's incoming Chief Executive Alistair Phillips-Davies said:
"With Ofgem today warning on security of supply in the coming few years, it is vital that we strike the right balance between keeping existing plant open and making the market economic for new plant . The capacity mechanism as it stands won't make payments to power stations until 2018, so unfortunately it doesn't address the immediate problem. It is good to see other solutions being proposed and we will look at the detail around National Grid procuring targeted reserve to assess what impact this might have.
"Regarding renewables, we will need to see far more than we have today of the detail underpinning the Contracts for Difference before they become bankable. Until more details are known, it remains impossible to judge whether the strike prices hit an appropriate balance between risk and reward."