Department of Energy and Climate Change secretary Chris Huhne said that the UK government will consult in autumn on the EPS, which aims to limit carbon emissions from power generators and is expected to influence whether utilities build coal or gas power plants, Reuters reported.
“It would be impossible for any new coal power station to be built without being equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS),” Huhne said.
“While the details of an EPS are still being finalized, we are clear that without CCS it would be impossible to meet such a standard.”
EPS would be part of the Electricity Market Reform consultation in autumn with a subsequent white paper in spring 2011, the government said in its Annual Energy Statement published on June 27.
In the annual statement, Huhne said the cheap energy time was over and that customers should expect higher bills as utilities built expensive renewable generation and new fossil fuel power plants to replace UK’s ageing fleet.
