This week the UK Energy Act got royal assent. It’s a weighty document of almost 500 pages in 15 parts. These only come along once a decade and they set the agenda, so it’s worth having a careful look.
The Act kicks off with sections that make piping CO2 and Hydrogen legal and creating the frameworks for their funding. It then goes on to set up the Independent System Operator and Planner (separating out from National Grid what is known as FSO).
Then, it covers a huge amount of ground: It changes the way that Industry codes are governed, sets up support schemes including energy intensive industries, establishes regulation of heat networks, sets the framework for smart devices, improves building’s energy efficiency, allows government intervention in oil supplies, sets up recovery funds for offshore operations, and finally, changes some of the ways that nuclear is regulated.
It could have been written by Kafka as it’s short stories rather than a novel, the long version was ripped up and burnt a long time ago.
What’s missing? – well, quite a lot: Net Zero is hardly mentioned – only four times and climate is only there 19 times. Energy Market Reform gets a heading, but the content has very little to do with REMA, marginal or nodal pricing. There’s nothing on a larger electricity network or connections reform. Consumer Protection gets a heading, but as far as I can see there aren’t any consumer protection schemes included.
It’s interesting to compare it to what is going on in the US. The Inflation Reduction Act is a huge stimulus package that resulted in billions of investments heading west.
The UK has led the world in so many energy topics – first hydro power, first coal power, first nuclear power, a leader in deregulation and market reform, and a leader in offshore wind. When I travel, the rest of the world wants to know what is happening in the UK.
This is a missed opportunity, as an industry we are ready for bolder more progressive and faster change.
