August 4, 2023

expert reaction to independent report and recommendations from the UK’s Electricity Networks Commissioner, Nick Winser, on electricity transmission infrastructure

The report from the UK’s Electricity Networks Commissioner, Nick Winser, provides recommendations on how to accelerate the deployment of electricity transmission infrastructure.

Dr Simon Harrison, Chair of the National Engineering Policy Centre net zero electricity grid working group, said:

“Today’s report by the Electricity Networks Commissioner is welcome.  It is imperative that we decarbonise the electricity system and building the electricity networks we need is the single biggest bottleneck to achieving this.  Electricity networks are essential to transporting new low carbon power, such as from offshore wind, from where it is generated to homes and businesses across the country where it will be increasingly used to decarbonise key areas of infrastructure, such as heat and transport.  Addressing the current bottleneck is key to enabling access to low carbon electricity, lowering the costs of electricity and, over time, reducing our exposure to fossil fuels.

“However, this will inevitably result in some parts of the country needing significant amounts of new electrical infrastructure, meaning some communities being adversely impacted so that the rest of us, and the planet, can benefit.  In accelerating the deployment of this infrastructure, it is critical that local voices are heard and solutions found that minimise community and environmental impact, and provide appropriate recompense to those affected.

“The world is already at a tipping point that requires our generation to transform our world from an economy driven and enabled primarily by fossil fuels to one powered by zero carbon sources of energy.  Government needs to urgently do all that it can to address the current bottleneck of transmission infrastructure build that is limiting this, and the Electricity Network Commissioner’s report is a comprehensive review which set out to develop recommendations that will halve the end-to-end project process time by the mid 2020s.  Taken together, the review identifies a large range of measures that can and should be acted upon.  Delays are not in the interests of either consumers or the climate.”

Independent report. ‘Accelerating electricity transmission network deployment: Electricity Network Commissioner’s recommendations’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/accelerating-electricity-transmission-network-deployment-electricity-network-commissioners-recommendations

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