While both UK and Scottish governments concentrate renewable energy profits in private hands, Gordon Morgan asks what it will take to break the Thatcherite legacy and put power into the Scottish people’s hands.

Labour was elected with a policy to remove fossil fuels from electricity in Great Britain by 2030. They are largely on course to achieve this. Most of the generation required and the grid network upgrade is being built. This is good for the climate!

However, there has been little immediate benefit for the people of Scotland.

First of all we have to note that Scotland has not used coal and hardly any gas in electricity since 2016. Labour’s pledge was to make England’s electricity gas free.

Scotland has exported electricity to England every year since 2000, and this has increased as wind farms were built. Scottish electricity consumption has remained the same so Scotland now exports over 40% of what it produces. This is expected to rise to 55% by 2035.

Scottish consumers have not benefited from this as wholesale electricity prices are set at a GB level and the price of gas used in England drives up the overall price. Were prices set in Scotland they would be lower.

The price of electricity across Great Britain is set every half hour. Suppliers submit bids and starting at the lowest, they are accepted until the demand is met by bids under a price — which is then paid to all accepted bids. Even though it is more expensive than renewables, gas sets the price around 90% of half hour periods.

Gas prices were hit by the Ukraine conflict and rose from 21 to 34 p/kWh in 2021 then fell to 26p/kWh in 2026. Electricity prices followed the price of gas. Ending this reliance on gas requires a grid upgrade to move electricity to where it is needed.

The cost of the pylons to transport the energy South are added to everyone’s bills. Between 2020 and 2025 a total of £100 was added to household bills, making network costs £339 a year.

A new charge this year, RAB, adds £12 a year for 10 years to every household to build Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk for electricity which Scotland does not need or want. Hinckley Point C will be paid £133/MWh, twice the price of solar. Labour wants to build more nuclear, including in Scotland. The Scottish Government and the public must continue to oppose this.

Household electricity costs are higher in Scotland as house holds need more heat and light and have older properties so use nearly 20% more electricity.

The problems can be traced back to Thatcher’s privatisation of energy and the fact that electricity is a reserved power. Labour inherited this, but has chosen to avoid challenging the private owner ship of electricity but rather to regulate it better: the National Grid, which manages both gas and electricity supply was nationalised and renamed NESO; the owners of the pylons and cables have to get government approval to extend them; generators of electricity increasingly are subject to competitive contracts.

Labour in Government has held annual Contract Bidding Rounds to ensure sufficient generation is built to meet the Clean Power pledge. In each round the government lists groups of energy which it wants e.g. offshore wind; onshore wind and solar. Suppliers place a bid and the amount of energy they can produce each year. To this a sum per MW to use the grid will be added based on their location. The Government accepts the lowest bids and con tracts are price indexed for 15 years. Around 25% of electricity is supplied under these contracts, this will rise to 50% by 2035.

The location price added to a windfarm in Scotland is much more than one off the South East of England. Thus in the last round West of Orkney Wind Farm bid wasn’t accepted, one off Dogger Bank was. Energy from Orkney Mainland still remains unconnected to the grid.

NESO, responsible for strategic energy planning across the UK, is now drawing up plans for where new industries can be built and where new power is needed up to 2050. This is being done alongside forecasts that electricity demand could rise 60% by 2035 through electric cars and industries electrifying.

The first draft of the Scottish Regional Energy Plan (RESP) was published earlier this year, with the final due next year. It is important the plan is fully discussed particularly with Local Government and trade unions and in the Scottish Parliament. New industries should be subject to scrutiny as to their employment intentions and the skills required and the Scottish Government must ensure educational establishments can meet these. The governments should consider taking a stake in them. All areas having suffered recent loss of major industries should be considered within the RESP. It is unclear these factors are being considered.

The Scottish Government has said little about this apart from announcing in May Scotland’s first AI Growth Zone in North Lanarkshire. This in itself is controversial and we know little about the water, energy and other restrictions that are being placed on this, nor who benefits from the data used. It is necessary that AI and other heavy electrical users are where appropriate incorporated in the RESP.

In its North Sea Future Plan the UK Government claims the North Sea is Britain’s greatest asset for offshore wind, hydrogen, and carbon storage. This chimes with the Scottish Government’s role for Aberdeen’s Energy Transition Zone. Both Scottish and UK Governments, unions and the public must work together to develop these new industries and an open discussion be held