THE MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd has backed plans for electrical grid batteries that would lead to local and rural communities developing a long-term renewable energy supply.

Liz Saville Roberts said that grid-integrated and locally situated batteries are needed to store electricity that is generated locally, so that it can be supplied on demand to households and businesses.

Mrs Saville Roberts spoke during a debate on the Local Electricity Bill in the House of Commons which she is supporting along with a cross-party group of 213 MPs.

Currently customers can only purchase electricity from nationally licensed utilities, which supporters of the Bill say results in money spent on energy bills not staying in local economies or funding localised clean energy infrastructure.

“A Right to Local Supply will empower and enable new community energy companies to sell energy that they generate directly to local people, accelerating our transition to clean energy and helping to strengthen local economies,” said the Gwynedd MP.

“We must invest in grid-integrated, local situated batteries to realise our local energy-generating potential, especially in rural communities.

“The Local Electricity Bill would enshrine a Right to Local Supply in law."