Meeting of the Parliament 25 February 2015
I genuinely welcome the opportunity to debate this important matter, and I thank Murdo Fraser and his party for raising it in the chamber. Few things are of more immediate importance than the future of Longannet power station, because that future is under imminent threat.
Like Mr Fraser, I have visited Longannet on more than one occasion—I did so most recently on Monday—and I pay tribute to the professionalism of the staff there. The station was built to have a life of 25 years and 150,000 running hours, but it has delivered electricity for this country for 42 years over 215,000 running hours. I was informed by the manager of Longannet that last year was its best operational year ever. I think that that says a lot for the professionalism of those who have worked there over four decades, many of whom have served for most of that period. In addition, I believe that the company has invested in the order of £200 million in meeting the challenges that it faces, such as those that relate to emissions of sulphur dioxide and other gases. It has quite rightly sought to address the environmental concerns.
I want to start by finding some consensus. I feel that there is a broad consensus in Scotland that Longannet has served us well, that we continue to need it now and that although it faces a challenging future beyond 2020, broadly speaking—political disagreements aside—we all want a solution to be found that will allow the station to continue to operate for several years to come.
The record will show that, as energy minister, I have been pretty consistent in arguing that to meet our need for security of supply, reasonable cost and reliability we need a balance to our electricity mix. Not only have I argued that time and again in speeches in the chamber, but in 2013 I ensured that it was set out in the “Electricity Generation Policy Statement—2013”, which was prepared by technical experts. I am not such an expert—and neither, I suspect, are many members in the chamber—but that policy document was prepared on expert advice. Whatever is said by various people who write for tabloid newspapers or who communicate what they purport to be news to the outside world does not detract from the fact that we have been entirely consistent in calling for a balanced means of electricity supply and that we have set that out clearly in writing and in great technical detail.