My Lords, this amendment follows on from our discussion about the decarbonisation aspects of the Bill. Noble Lords will be aware that an important amendment was successfully added to the Bill at Report. It would close a current drafting loophole in the Bill that would allow old, inefficient, polluting coal stations to upgrade and seek extensive life extensions without the need to comply with any kind of emissions performance standard. This will now, of course, be debated in the Commons, and we look forward to seeing the results of that.
However, in succeeding in having this part of the Bill accepted, an interesting definitional issue has arisen. Bear with me as I try to explain it. The industrial emissions directive, which requires tightened quality standards to apply to coal stations from 2016, applies at a station level. A station is defined as “a common stack”, meaning a chimney that can be used by multiple units. This has interesting implications because the EPS limits can therefore be met by one unit upgrading to fit filters while another unit remains unabated but still operating unencumbered and at full capacity. Our intention in closing a loophole that could potentially extend coal’s life span to late into the next decade was that the EPS should apply at the same level at which the IED applies, meaning that if a station with four units decided to retrofit two of the four in order to comply with the IED, the station as a whole would then be caught by the EPS.
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We have had representations from industry asking for clarification on this because, in sitting down to work out the implications of the amendment, they have looked at the Bill and seen that the definitions are not clear. The Bill defines a “plant” as a “station”, which is insufficiently precise when one is trying to assess this, because plants are made up of units. The definitions used in air quality standards use “common stack” for that purpose. The amendment would bring greater clarity to the EPS part of the Bill and bring it in line with the definitions in the industrial emissions directive. The implications of the Bill could then be understood by those making investment decisions on whether to upgrade their plant or to opt out, run their hours out and close.
I hope that I have made that clear—I fear that I may not have done because it is very complicated. To put it in its simplest terms, the Bill is insufficiently clear on these definitions of what constitutes a station and we have tabled this amendment to address that. I hope that the Minister will be able to accept it. I beg to move.