My Lords, I will continue with my responses to the noble Lord, Lord Granchester. He asked about interconnectors. As he mentioned, we announced the interconnected capacity, which will participate in the market from 2015. We will bring forward amending legislation and an impact assessment in the new year that will address the points the noble Lord raised about interconnectivity.
The noble Lord also asked about existing plant such as nuclear and asked why it was being allowed to partake in the auction. The purpose of the capacity market is to ensure that we have secure energy—that the lights do not go off. That means that we need to ensure that all forms of capacity are able to take part in the system. However, it is open to best value: of course the capacity market is there to generate competition, but also to ensure that we have enough supply to keep the lights on. I think the noble Lord will of course agree that those established technologies have a lot of upfront costs when they build, so a lot of other costs are associated with the traditional sector and we should not exit them out just because they have already built and are partaking. However, nuclear offers a low-carbon energy supply, and I think the noble Lord will agree that that is also a necessary need to fulfil, as well as ensuring that the lights stay on.
The noble Lord asked about carbon impact policies and the advantage for plants that are bidding at the 19-megawatt ratio. I would like to reassure the noble Lord that we will be reviewing the outcome of the first auction to ensure that it is a fair process and that we do not unintentionally benefit one form of supply over another.
This debate has been important and I do thank the noble Lord for his questions, which have allowed me to illustrate the fairness of the system—but again, as with all things, we will make sure that we are reviewing the process as we go along. I would also like to put on record that I hope that the noble Lord gets an opportunity over the Christmas period to take some time off and rest, because I know that he works extremely hard, as do his colleagues, in challenging the Government—which is only right and enables us to produce better legislation. I commend the draft regulations.