London, 5th October 2021: EIUG says Government and Ofgem must match the urgency in other countries and implement measures to protect the UK‘s Energy Intensive Industries (EIIs) from being forced to halt production of essential goods this winter.
Immediate steps for this winter must include:
- Introducing Winter Cost Containment Measures on gas, electricity and carbon prices to ensure that those most exposed to these costs can continue to operate this winter and produce the essential goods that feed UK supply chains, as well as going forward to compete internationally through the immediate cessation of uncompetitive policy on- costs such as ‘Carbon Price Support’.
- Immediate Action by Ofgem to reduce EII network costs: Ofgem must replicate the network tariff discounts offered to competitor industries in the EU.
- Modifying the Gas Emergency Measures: Government and Ofgem must outline steps to ensure that sufficient gas is available and that the priority site value threshold is reduced from 50 million to 1million to make sure that many more kilns and furnaces can be safely shutdown without sustaining serious damage in the event of an emergency or sudden supply disruption.
Long-term measures for BEIS action on uncompetitive policy costs:
- Provide full relief for historic legacy costs for renewables: a 100% exemption from RO and FiT schemes plus a higher percentage reduction from CfD costs for all EII sectors, including those not currently in receipt of relief.
- Full relief from indirect carbon prices (ETS and CPF) for all EII sectors, including those not currently captured by a partial relief scheme.
- Don’t rebalance on-costs from electricity to gas: provide an EII exemption from green gas levy and other forthcoming policy costs aimed at decarbonising gas supply until cost – competitive alternatives are available.
Why we matter:
EIUG members include the steel, fertiliser, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cement, lime, minerals, ceramics, paper, glass and industrial gases sectors. They manufacture essential daily domestic and industrial products, providing 200,000 direct jobs and indirectly supporting another 800,000.