Chesterfield Borough Council has unanimously approved a motion that supports the Local Electricity Bill.
The motion means the council will support the bill when applied to renewable electricity and will also write to local MPs to encourage them to support the bill in parliament. The Local Electricity Bill empowers community groups, local businesses and councils to become local energy suppliers, which aims to help ensure that the supply of renewable energy across the UK can be increased.
Councillor Amanda Serjeant, deputy leader of Chesterfield Borough Council, said: “It was important for the full council to support this motion and for us to support the Local Electricity Bill in principle, because we all agree that we must reduce our carbon emissions in order to minimise the effects of climate change. We are already doing lots to reduce emissions in Chesterfield but energy remains one of the most significant areas to decarbonise.
“I hope our local MPs will listen to our motion and support this bill in parliament. It could help revolutionise electricity supply and create new local networks of renewable energy generation, which is essential to helping reduce emissions both in Chesterfield and across the UK.”
Currently to sell electricity there is a high cost because of complex grid balancing codes and network agreements, which is a barrier to entry for small local electricity generation.
The Local Electricity Bill aims to remove this barrier, making it financially viable for electricity generators to sell directly to local people.
The bill would establish a Right to Local Supply which would make the setup and running costs of selling renewable electricity to local people proportionate to the size of the supply company.
Provided the carbon cap on electricity generation is low enough it could lead to increasing the supply of local renewable electricity which could help the UK meet its climate change targets.
The council will now write to local MPs to encourage them to support this bill in parliament.
