Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

I want to come back to the question of microgeneration for rooftops. Some 76,000 customers have now registered under this scheme. We have seen massive growth in the last 12 months and microgeneration for rooftop solar is up about 85%. I will comment on the process. What customers do when they have solar PV panels installed is that they submit an NC6 form that demonstrates to us that the equipment has been installed by a registered installer. Once that form is processed, and it is done on what is called an inform-and-fit basis, it is then automated by us and the details are provided to the electricity supply company that the customer has a relationship with, so they get a credit for the export from those solar panels.

Of course, that dovetails with our smart metering programme. At this stage, we have installed over 1.5 million smart meters and people are able to see their usage and their export out to the distribution network. There are no restrictions, as things stand. If we were to fast forward on the scale of this, I think it has the potential to be a big contributor towards the climate action targets and it gives more control around use and self-generation for customers. As this scales up in the years ahead, and it is continuing to grow at a huge pace, we are monitoring the network at a low voltage level to see where we need to invest on a proactive basis and also a reactive basis.

As things stand, it is on an inform-and-fit basis so there are no restrictions on people putting in solar panels.