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Leaving the EU and exiting the internal energy market could cost the UK £500 million or more each year, energy secretary Amber Rudd has said.
During a speech in Kent, Rudd said: “The UK’s membership of the European Union has helped keep our energy bills down.”
Referring to an independent report, commissioned by National Grid, which finds that leaving the EU, and exiting the internal energy market, could cost consumers £500 million or more each year, she said: “If we left the European internal market, we’d get a massive electric shock because UK energy costs are likely to rocket by at least half a billion pounds a year – the equivalent of British bills going up by around one and a half million pounds each and every day.”
She suggested interconnectors alone could save British households nearly £12 billion over the next two decades by driving down the price of electricity, and a fully integrated internal energy market could save up to £50 billion per year by 2030.
She went on to say that, even if the country develops the potential of UK shale gas, it is still expected to import about three quarters of its gas by 2030.
“In other words, we will have to continue to work with our closest neighbours to deliver energy security in the future,” she said. “Relying on energy from abroad is not without risk. We have seen how countries such as Putin’s Russia use their gas supplies as a tool of foreign policy. Threatening to cut off supplies or drastically increase prices.
“We can’t let our energy security be hijacked as a political pawn to bring Europe to its knees. By working together in the European Union each member state can stop this becoming a reality.
“However you look at it, an internal energy market helps to guarantee our energy security, which is the bedrock of our economic security. I’m not willing to play fast and loose with either.”
Earlier this year, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Rudd said warned that voting to leave in the upcoming referendum would plunge the energy market into uncertainty.
At the time, she said she supports Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to negotiate a favourable reform of the UK’s relationship with the EU, and warned that the UK risks losing influence over the outcome of energy market talks if the country opts out.
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