EU and UK energy collaboration post-Brexit ‘imperative’ says SSE chief

SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies has urged the UK and EU to continue to collaborate on energy projects post-Brexit in order to deliver a North Sea low carbon grid.

In a statement posted on the company’s website, he writes: “The UK and EU should continue to collaborate on delivering large, ambitious energy projects for mutual benefit.”

As an example, Phillips-Davies cites the ‘unfulfilled renewable energy potential waiting to be harnessed’ in the North Sea where SSE is seeking to develop 4GW worth of offshore wind farms in the Dogger Bank area.

Referring to untapped potential to connect up electricity systems in the UK, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Norway, he writes: “Working with our European colleagues we can make the North Sea low carbon grid a reality.

“Effective co-operation on energy between the UK and countries on mainland Europe can only help get projects like this ‘off the seabed’.

“These are complex matters, but the sooner the parties to the negotiations on the future UK-EU relationship on energy are able to agree a way forward, the better it will be for efforts to take forward the next stages in decarbonising our economy.

“Whilst the Brexit settlement may have an impact in shaping the means for the UK to achieve this goal, there is a clear appetite from industry across Europe towards delivering for customers and wider society. It is now for negotiators on both sides to provide clarity on the long-term UK-EU relationship for energy.”

The statement also urges the maintenance of the Single Electricity Market on the island of Ireland and the establishment of a suitable dispute resolution mechanism to secure its long-term stability across the Irish border.

Phillips-Davies, who recently travelled to Brussels to sign a pledge by European electricity industry bosses to decarbonise their businesses before the middle of the century, also calls for continued UK participation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.