A House of Lords Committee has warned the UK Government’s 2030 clean power target is at risk without building new energy generation and network infrastructure.
The committee said that the scale and pace needed to be “drastically” stepped up in its new report, Power struggle: Delivering Great Britain’s electricity grid infrastructure.
The Industry and Regulators Committee also suggested that regional zonal pricing should enable better use of existing grid capacity and lower the cost of electricity, provided that the transition and its risks are managed well.
The report also welcomes Ofgem’s decision to prioritise projects that are strategically necessary to meet the clean power target and warns that without greater skills, resources and a more strategic approach, the planning system could remain a key barrier to delivering the infrastructure needed.
The Committee also found the government should clarify what its growth drive means for Ofgem; how reforms to grid connections to enable 2030 projects could impact 2035 schemes; greater strategic planning of the energy system to speed up planning and regulatory approvals; and the need to assess the impacts of zonal pricing.
As a result, the Committee is calling on the government to:
- Publish key metrics for meeting clean power target every six months
- How Ofgem should balance competing objectives of affordable bills, decarbonisation investment and secure energy supplies
- Ring-fencing revenues raised by planning-related fees
- Set out whether it intends to prioritise electricity grid connections for strategically important sectors or businesses
- How different sectoral strategic plans will interact and how conflicts between them will be managed
- Consider whether transitional support should be provided to generators and consumers who may be adversely affected by zonal pricing
Chair of the Committee, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, said:
“The electricity grid is an essential part of modern life for households, businesses and transport links. Recent outages in Spain, Portugal and Heathrow have shown the devastating disruption that failures can cause.
“Given the scale of changes needed to the planning, regulation and delivery of energy infrastructure, and the UK’s historic record of delivering major infrastructure projects, our report questions the feasibility of meeting the clean power target.
“Time is already running out, and there is no room for complacency. The Government and the sector must ramp up their efforts to have a chance of success.”
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