In an open letter, Tempus Energy chief executive Sara Bell has accused energy and clean growth minister Claire Perry MP of misleading statements over the Capacity Market and its re-examination over State Aid clearance by the European Commission.

Bell said that Perry was misleading to say that the European Court’s decision to was not a challenge to the CM mechanism, but merely procedural.  ”Various substantive features of the policy design gave rise to “serious doubts” about compatibility with State aid rules,” said Bell, and “continuing to charge customers under that [Capacity Market] methodology in the face of the Judgment is reckless and unjustifiable.” The comment comes as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and electricity market participants, are separately examining ways to collect and hold Capacity Market payments so they can be redistributed if and when the market is reinstated.

Bell said that was misguided. Instead the CM should be restructured to offer a level playing field for demand side response (DSR) with maximum five-year contracts for all participants, market criteria that worked for new entrants (such as minimum 100kW participants), a guaranteed year-ahead market and new flexibility requirements.

Read the full open letter

Further reading

• Capacity Market: two options to resume payments in Q1, BEIS seeks views by 10 January
•  Tempus Energy chief: Capacity Market auctions will have to be re-run

• Ofgem confirms Capacity Market role for co-located storage – including mobile options
• BEIS confirms T-1 auction in summer 2019 but questions remain over payments
• Drax and Iberdrola, mid acquisition, agree to share £36M Capacity Market payment risk
• Capacity Market ruling: the industry responds