Some large users have hinted at a recent power conference hosted by BE that they want to have electricity labelling so that they know that the electricity they have bought comes from a nuclear source or coal source etc. This is so crassly stupid in beggars belief, in effect the retailers wish to be able to ask the industry if they can measure and assess where exactly power production comes from, this is not without significant cost.

Retailers pay for power, they pay for carbon dioxide to be emitted in the power production process, and they will soon have to pay to over consume under the CRC the government is forcing players to reduce consumption through energy effeciency gains. So why would you want to add a further cost to assess whether your power comes from nuclear or coal.

BE no doubt feel that this would be a real phillip as players would opt for low carbon products such as BE generated electricity. If this were the case then it would fracture an already illiquid power market.