The government risks failing to meet its goal of decarbonising the UK’s power sector by 2035 because it lacks a clear and comprehensive delivery plan, the public spending watchdog warned on Wednesday.
The National Audit Office said that the focus on the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine means that the minister has made “little progress” in the long-term strategy for decarbonizing power, although he had planned to release one in October last year.
In signs of grid infrastructure struggling to keep pace with changes in the power system, the watchdog found generators were paying up to £62m a day to cut output when supply outstripped demand and could not be saved.
NAO chairman Gareth Davies said that since decarbonisation was the “backbone [the government’s] the wider the net zero ambition”, the longer it takes to produce a complete plan, “the higher the risk of not achieving the ambition, or doing it at a cost more than necessary for taxpayers and consumers”.
The lack of a modernization plan that covers the entire power system risks damaging the industry and investor confidence, the watchdog said.
The government has set out its ambition to have all UK electricity generated using clean sources, including nuclear, by 2035. Greenhouse gas emissions from UK power plants have fallen by 73 per cent since 1990, according to official data, but 41 per cent of the country’s electricity still comes from natural gas natural, fossil fuel pollution.
The NAO says meeting the 2035 target will require rapid expansion of wind, solar and nuclear power. Although offshore wind capacity has grown in recent years, the rise has been accompanied by a jump in the amount of money paid out to power generators to reduce output, the watchdog found.
It says “constraint costs” – which occur when generators cannot access the grid or generation exceeds network capacity or demand – have been between zero and £62m a day since 2018. Noting that the total annual cost has recently increased, the NAO warns that it could increase further “if network capacity not keeping pace with the expansion of electricity generation”.
You see a picture of an interactive graphic. This is likely because you are offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Experts say that the grid network can be deployed only before overheating or overloading, adding that it is designed for smaller large power stations, rather than the more complex structure of many small generators, such as wind and solar farms.
Chris Hewett, head of industry group Solar Energy UK, said the lack of rapid grid investment was “probably the biggest obstacle to solar and energy storage”.
You see a picture of an interactive graphic. This is likely because you are offline or JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
“Capacity on the grid is now a constraint on economic growth,” he said, adding that “billions of kilos” of solar power projects have received planning permission but cannot be launched for years.
In its report, the NAO called on the new Department of Energy Security and Net Zero to outline an overall decarbonisation plan, integrating the various energy sector and network objectives and outlining how they will be met. The plan’s progress should be reported annually to parliament, he said.
The department for energy security said the focus during the energy crisis was “providing vital life support costs”, adding: “We have not taken off the pedal and our commitment to decarbonise the UK’s electricity system by 2035 remains firm.”