Zonal pricing is dead. Now Miliband should be less absolutist on his 2030 goals | Nils Pratley

The imperative ought to be to bear down on costs for consumers, starting with a more pragmatic approach to generation targets

The chief executive of Ofgem, Jonathan Brearley, backed zonal pricing. Fintan Slye, the head of the National Energy System Operator, also supported a system that could have led to different parts of Great Britain charging different rates for their electricity. Chris Stark, the head of the mission control" unit within Ed Miliband's energy department, declared himself to be zonal curious".

But it's not going to happen. After intense lobbying from both sides of the great philosophical divide in energy-land, Miliband has killed the zonal option. The policy wonks are now obliged to go back to fiddling with internal network charges - the fees paid by generators to access the transmission network - to calculate the sweet spots to encourage more renewable generation where it's most needed, while not stifling it completely in places where, for example, it is windy. That means yet more rounds of consultation.