Energy Minister Michael Fallon pledged yesterday to consider calls to cut energy bills on the islands by creating special domestic markets.
Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil raised concerns in Westminster about electricity generators in the Hebrides paying extra to export their power, while local consumers also face higher charges to import it.
The SNP member called for a “domestic island market” where locally produced energy is sold to residents at lower prices.
At energy questions in the Commons yesterday, Mr MacNeil asked: “Will the minister and his department look at that possibility to help ease energy bills on the islands?”
Mr Fallon said: “I am happy to look at that specific proposal.”
Speaking later, Mr MacNeil said: “Currently, the situation is that a unit of electricity is between 3% and 14% more expensive in the Hebrides than in London, depending on which electricity company consumers use, because Ofgem adds transmission charges to the price of electricity.
“Simultaneously, renewable producers in the islands are being charged to export energy from the islands when the reality is that much of the current renewable production, if not all, is being consumed on the islands.”
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