
The government is in danger of missing its 2030 grid decarbonisation target unless it drastically steps up the scale and pace of energy generation and network infrastructure development, the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee has warned.
Entitled Power struggle: Delivering Great Britain’s electricity grid infrastructure, the report said a delay in one area risks resulting in the ‘failure ’ of the government’s entire mission to decarbonise the electricity system by at least 95% by 2030.
It says: ‘Time is already running out, and there is no room for complacency. The government and the sector will need to ramp up their efforts to have a chance of success.’
The committee recommends that the government should publish key metrics for meeting its clean power target every six months.
These would include reports on the amount of electricity generation that networks have connected to the Grid and progress on the 80 transmission network projects identified as necessary by the National Energy Systems Operator for meeting the clean power target.
The committee’s chair, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, said: ‘Given the scale of changes needed for the planning, regulation and delivery of energy infrastructure, and the UK’s historic record of delivering major infrastructure projects, our report questions the feasibility of meeting the clean power target.’