Government sets out plan to protect households and boost economic growth in new era of clean electricity

Working people will benefit from a new era of clean electricity, as the government today unveils the most ambitious reforms to the country's energy system in a generation, to make Britain energy secure, protect households from energy price spikes, reindustrialise the country with thousands of skilled jobs, and tackle the climate crisis. 

In a major milestone to deliver on the Prime Minister's Plan for Change which aims to drive economic growth and rebuild Britain with mission-driven government, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will today (Friday 13 December) set out a detailed plan for achieving the target of clean power by 2030.  

The plan will provide the foundation for the UK to build an energy system that can bring down bills for households and businesses for good. The independent National Energy System Operator (NESO) set out pathways to a clean power system in 2030, and confirmed it was deliverable, more secure, and could see a lower cost of electricity, and lower bills.   

For too long, there has been no plan for building new energy infrastructure based on an assessment of what the country actually needs for the long term. As a result, billions of pounds of clean energy projects have been held up by a clogged-up planning system, and a dysfunctional power grid queue that means renewables projects cannot get online. 

The government will now plan an energy system based on what the country needs. The plan sets out bold measures to get more homegrown clean power to people. These include: cleaning up a dysfunctional grid system by prioritising the most important projects and ending the “first-come-first served” system; speeding up decisions on planning permission by empowering planners to prioritise critical energy infrastructure; and expanding the renewable auction process to stop delays and get more projects connected. 

Delivering these reforms will unleash £40 billion a year of mainly private investment in homegrown clean power projects and infrastructure across the country, creating good jobs across the country including engineers, welders and mechanics.  

Every family and business in the country has paid the price of Britain's dependence on foreign fossil fuel markets, which was starkly exposed when Putin invaded Ukraine and British energy customers were among the hardest hit in Western Europe, with bills reaching record heights.  

The government's clean power mission is the solution to this crisis; by sprinting to clean, homegrown energy, including renewables and nuclear, the UK can take back control of its energy and protect both family and national finances from fossil fuel price spikes with cleaner, affordable power.  

This action plan sets out how the government will build the generation and infrastructure needed to deliver that system. Over this Parliament the government will be working relentlessly to translate the much cheaper wholesale costs of clean power into lower bills for consumers. 

It follows the signing on Tuesday this week of the Final Investment Decision for the UK's first Carbon Capture project in Teesside – delivering thousands of new, skilled jobs in the North East of England. The East Coast Cluster - which will capture and store carbon emissions from industries in the region - is set to start construction in mid-2025. On Thursday, Orsted announced up to £100 million worth of contracts for its Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm, supporting jobs across three supply chain companies in the North of England. 

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: 

“A new era of clean electricity for our country offers a positive vision of Britain's future with energy security, lower bills, good jobs and climate action. This can only happen with big, bold change and that is why the government is embarking on the most ambitious reforms to our energy system in generations.   

“The era of clean electricity is about harnessing the power of Britain's natural resources so we can protect working people from the ravages of global energy markets.   

“The clean power sprint is the national security, economic security, and social justice fight of our time - and this plan gives us the tools we need to win this fight for the British people.”  

Ends.  

Notes to editors 

The key elements of this national plan include:  

1. Cleaning up the dysfunctional grid 

• Getting more homegrown clean power connected to the grid by building the necessary infrastructure, prioritising the projects needed for 2030 to connect as much clean power as possible 

• Over the last five years, the grid connection queue has grown tenfold, and now contains an equivalent capacity of 739 GW. Many of these projects are speculative or do not have the necessary funding or planning permission to progress. 

• The queue is currently managed on a ‘first come, first served' basis. To meet the 2030 ambition, action is needed now to rationalise the queue and accelerate the projects that are critical to the goal. This means going beyond previous plans to deprioritise slow-moving or stalled projects and prioritise based on readiness alone.  

• Instead, this plan will help remove unviable projects, re-order the queue, and accelerate connection timescales for the projects needed most. 

• Cleaning up the queue will mean crucial infrastructure from housing to gigafactories and data centres can get a connection to the grid, helping to unlock billions of investment and grow the economy. 

1. Prioritising 2030 projects in the planning system 

• The plan will provide clarity on what the energy mix will look like for 2030 on a national and regional level, including updating the National Policy Statements for energy that guide planners so they have clear direction on the importance of delivering the right amounts of clean power and energy infrastructure for 2030.  

• The government is also bringing onshore wind back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime in England - this will make it easier to progress onshore farms larger than 100MW.  

• The government will bring forward a Planning and Infrastructure Bill with measures to streamline the delivery of critical infrastructure in the planning process.  

• The government will also ensure communities directly benefit from hosting clean energy infrastructure. 

1. Further reforms to accelerate homegrown clean power: 

• Expanding the renewable auction process so projects can get funding agreed before their planning permission has been finalised, to stop delays and get more projects online. 

• Unlocking investment into supply chains, allocating funding from the Clean Industry Bonus, and ensuring that clean power creates good jobs across the country. 

• Pro-consumer reforms to help households have more choice and access to cheaper energy tariffs, and ensure more consumers can make the choice to save money on their bills by using appliances when electricity is cheaper – for example charging their car overnight and selling excess energy back to the grid. 

Additional notes: 

• Accelerating grid connections and building new network infrastructure is central to unblocking over billions of investment in the UK's clean energy industries and driving growth and job creation in all sectors of the economy, including AI, data centres and manufacturing.   

• This ambitious plan will help meet the UK's legally binding climate targets and harness renewable power to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, helping to protect national and household finances from the rollercoaster of international markets.  

• It follows urgent action already taken to deliver on the mission since July, including lifting the onshore wind ban, establishing Great British Energy, consenting almost 2 GW of nationally significant solar, delivering a record-breaking renewables auction, and kickstarting carbon capture and hydrogen industries.