(Bloomberg) -- The British government is working on a plan to separate natural gas and electricity prices in a market revamp as more of the country’s energy comes from renewable sources like wind. 

The current design of the electricity market, where gas-powered generation sets the price, was well-suited for the system 40 years ago, but no longer reflects the cost to produce electricity, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told a Parliament committee on Tuesday. 

Surging gas prices have prompted the UK to look at reforming so-called “marginal pricing” where the most expensive megawatt needed to meet demand sets the power price for all generation. The government needs to find ways to help cut energy bills for consumers and reducing the influence of gas on power bills would help.

“All our constituents are paying a price for electricity, which is directly related to the marginal cost of gas production,” Kwarteng said. “It doesn’t reflect the actual cost of generation.”

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One strategy could be to have a bifurcated market that separates renewable power generation from gas, Kwarteng said. Another way would be to focus on the average cost across the different power-generation technologies. While he didn’t give a date for when the government would come out with a plan, Kwarteng said they’re “trying to work at pace on this.”

The UK has pegged its electricity future on offshore wind farms, with an aim to more than triple the current capacity by the end of the decade. Reducing gas’s role in the power market would limit the impact of volatile fossil fuels price on energy costs to British consumers. 

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