The UK government has revealed what it says are the most ambitious reforms to the country’s energy system in a generation, setting out a plan for achieving clean power by 2030.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband will outline the Clean Power Action Plan, detailing reforms to be introduced in 2025. The government says the plan will unlock £40 billion a year of “mainly private” investment in homegrown clean power projects and infrastructure across the country.
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.”
In his foreword, Miliband states the government is “under no illusions about the scale of the task ahead”. The plan, drawn up over the last few months, includes three key elements: cleaning up the dysfunctional grid, prioritising 2030 projects in the planning system and reforms to accelerate homegrown clean power.
It also takes on the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO’s) definition of clean power as an energy system that is over 95% clean with gas generation acting as a back up or strategic reserve.
NESO recently published its advice to the government on how to achieve clean power by 2030, and the Clean Power Action Plan builds on the pathways it set out. Chief executive of NESO, Fintan Slye, said the independent operator is pleased that its advice “formed such an integral part of the plan set out by the government”.
Jon Butterworth, National Gas CEO, said the firm welcomes recognition of the “critical role of the gas transmission system”, noting that this week the need for gas hit a record high “with more gas supplied to power stations than at any point in the last five years”.
Reforming the electricity grid
The Clean Power Action Plan notes that the grid connection queue has grown tenfold in the last five years and contains the equivalent of 739GW capacity—many of the projects in the queue are speculative or do not have the funding or planning permission to progress.
To meet the 2030 target, the government says it must “go beyond” previous plans to deprioritise slow-moving or stalled projects and move projects forward based on readiness alone.
The new plan commits energy regulator Ofgem and NESO to work together to reform the grid connection queue, plans for which NESO has begun to set out. To allow more projects to connect to the grid, infrastructural upgrades will also be prioritised, with a focus on the projects needed for 2030.
Ofgem CEO Jonathan Brearley said: “Getting to clean power by 2030 is tough but achievable; it will require unprecedented pace by government, industry and regulators. We are taking a tough line and will hold the industry to account when it comes to the sector delivering on time and on budget.”
Planning reforms
To provide clarity to planners and give clear direction on the importance of delivering the right amounts of clean power and energy infrastructure for 2030, the plan establishes what the energy mix will look like by 2030.
Over half of the UK’s power will come from onshore and offshore wind and solar generation, with other sources like hydrogen, batteries, nuclear, biomass and gas making up the rest.
As laid out yesterday (12 December) in the updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the government is bringing onshore wind back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime in England, in theory making it easier to progress onshore farms larger than 100MW. It has also revised up the threshold for solar NSIPs with the same benefit in mind.
The Clean Power Action Plan also commits the government to bring forward a Planning and Infrastructure Bill with measures to streamline critical infrastructure in the planning process. It also states that the government will ensure communities directly benefit from hosting clean energy infrastructure.
Can clean power cut bills?
Ed Matthew, campaigns director at the independent climate change think tank E3G, welcomed the plan, saying “the prize is affordable, clean power which can be a beacon of light for the world to follow”.
As the transition to clean power has been heralded by the current government as a means to reducing energy bills for households and businesses “for good”.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho, under whom initiatives such as the clean heat market mechanism (CHMM) and zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate were delayed, said Labour’s “rush” to decarbonise the electricity system by 2030 would push up electricity prices and cause more hardship for people across Britain.
This is despite the fact that the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme was recently shown to have reduced the need for government funding of the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) by £18 per household during the winter of 2022/23.
Additional reforms for clean power 2030
The government plans to expand the renewables auction process so projects can get funding agreed before their planning permission is finalised, stopping delays and bringing more projects online. As rumoured, ministers have said that 2025 will see the biggest ever auction of renewable capacity for clean energy projects in the UK.
It will also encourage supply chain investment, allocating funding from the Clean Industry Bonus and, crucially, establishing significant jobs across the country through the energy transition.
It also commits to pro-consumer reforms to help households have more choice and access to cheaper energy tariffs. The Clean Power Action Plan also frames encouraging savings through energy use at off peak times as a pro-consumer move, although the grid balancing this provides stands to serve the transition overall.
Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus, the UK’s largest energy supplier, said: “Britain’s high energy prices stem from years of bad rules that don’t allow us to build renewable energy in the places it’s needed, or make use of cheap wind when it’s abundant, so these are positive steps.”
For trade association RenewableUK’s director of future electricity systems, Barnaby Wharton, “the Clean Power Action Plan will be considered a landmark moment for the clean energy sector.
“Not only do investors have a clear Government target of establishing a lowest cost electricity system dominated by wind and solar, but they now have a roadmap to achieving it.”