A House of Lords Committee has warned the Government that unless
it drastically steps up the scale and pace of building more
energy generation and network infrastructure it is in danger of
missing its clean power target of decarbonising the electricity
system by at least 95% by 2030.
In its report Power struggle: Delivering Great Britain's
electricity grid infrastructure, published today (Wednesday
4 June), 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 drive for growth means
for Ofgem's other responsibilities;
- reforms to the queue to connect to the grid are welcome but
are currently too tightly focussed on projects needed before
2030, meaning other projects needed by 2035, such as solar and
battery storage, might be held back;
- greater strategic planning of the energy system should help
to speed up planning and regulatory approvals for new grid
projects;
- the Government will need to assess carefully the impacts of
zonal pricing on generators and consumers that are unable to move
in response to price changes.
As a result, the Committee is calling on the Government to:
- publish key metrics for meeting the clean power target every
six months, including the successful delivery of grid projects;
- provide a clear steer on how Ofgem should balance the
competing objectives of affordable energy bills, encouraging
investment to decarbonise the energy system and ensuring secure
energy supplies;
- ring-fence revenues raised by planning-related fees for use
by local planning authorities;
- as part of the Industrial Strategy, set out whether it
intends to prioritise electricity grid connections for
strategically important sectors or businesses;
- as part of the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, set out 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 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.”
Notes to editors
- The Committee launched its inquiry on 14 January 2025 to
examine the regulatory, planning and funding barriers to
delivering energy grid infrastructure and the Government's
ability to address them.
It focussed on the deliverability of grid infrastructure to
avoid overlap with the work of other select committees engaging
with energy policy and we did not inquire into the cost of
energy, except where it related directly to grid
infrastructure.
