Plea to Ofgem to cut charges in Scotland

THE case for reducing the "prohibitive" transmission charges for electricity produced in Scotland has been put by First Minister Alex Salmond at a meeting with energy regulator Ofgem.

In what was described as a "constructive" meeting, Mr Salmond put the case against a charging regime that the Scottish Government believes is acting as a disincentive against renewable energy projects north of the Border.

As a result of the strong "locational pricing" element in the charging methods used by Ofgem, generators in the north of Scotland have the highest charges in the UK, at 20.17 per kilowatt hour compared with a subsidy of 5.87 per kWh in Cornwall.

The First Minister said: "Our long-standing objective has been to secure fundamental change to the transmission charging regime."