July 23, 2024

Delivery of rapid electricity system decarbonisation

‘Accelerating electricity decarbonisation’ is a new report from the National Engineering Policy Centre that aims to provide insight and possible solutions to the challenges of delivering rapid electricity system decarbonisation in the UK by the next decade. 

The report is targeted at UK policymakers and the wider energy industry. Co-chaired by former Government Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Sir Patrick Vallance (until 5 July), it focuses on what a credible, engineering-led rapid delivery plan to decarbonise the grid would require in practice. This will mean identifying the changes required to current processes, including to planning, procurement and ensuring we have the right engineering skills and government structures needed to drive the rapid changes.

The project is funded by a grant from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and supported by the National Engineering Policy Centre.

New grid infrastructure and increased distribution capacity will be required to decarbonise the grid and provide clean power by 2030 to accommodate a changed world of electric vehicles and heat pumps. Difficult choices will need to be made to reduce the time taken to deliver new grid infrastructure and connect power assets, and will mean confronting new transmission timelines and planning, grid connection queue delays and supply chain constraints.

Speakers included:

Dr Simon Harrison FREng CEng FIET FEI, co-chair of the independent working group and Group Head of Strategy at Mott MacDonald

Dame Dervilla Mitchell DBE FREng CEng MICE MIStructE, Director, Arup Group 

Professor Nilay Shah OBE FREng CEng FIChemE, Professor of Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College London