The Autumn Statement and the critical role of energy networks

I was heartened to see the Autumn Statement recognising the critical role electricity networks play in all our lives - connecting cleaner, more affordable, home-grown energy to Britain’s homes and businesses, whilst boosting the economy, creating green jobs and helping Britain meet its world-leading climate targets. 

Earlier this year National Grid launched The Great Grid Upgrade - the largest overhaul of the network in generations - which will see us deliver 17 new offshore and onshore transmission projects to do exactly that.  But the scale and pace of the transformation needed to deliver this new energy infrastructure requires a step change in how we plan, consent, consult and build. 

We’ve already started to collectively tackle some of these really big questions, so I was pleased to see both ambition and commitment from government in its announcements on networks. Getting Britain’s connections arrangements, planning rules and community benefit framework right is critical to enable the pace and scale of development needed. 

A spatial energy plan and accelerated planning consent will bring clarity, authority and urgency to what needs to be built and where, while new community benefit proposals will ensure local people remain at the heart of the energy transition process.   

The connections action plan will start to deliver the fundamental reforms needed to enable us to plug clean energy projects in faster, and build on the progress already being made. 

The current unconstrained market with low barriers to entry, combined with the allocation of capacity on a first come first served basis, has resulted in a transmission connections pipeline which currently stands at more than 300GW in England and Wales – that’s almost three times as much new capacity as we actually need to achieve net zero by 2050.  So bringing forward proposals such as removing stalled projects from the connections pipeline and raising entry requirements for new projects looking to connect to the grid are a welcome step.   

The intent from government this week is clear and welcome; now these plans must be implemented collaboratively and at pace to capture the economic opportunity of the energy transition and keep Britain on target to achieve its climate goals.