Recommendation 23

The British Energy Security Strategy appears to reflect a 20th century approach to energy security, prioritising the construction of big, centralised power generation facilities to meet fixed demand. A move to a smarter, more flexible, digitally-enabled grid, which technological innovations now make possible, holds exciting potential to smooth demand peaks by flexing demand up and down in a way that was hitherto impossible. Developments in this area could have important implications for other elements of the Government’s energy strategy - for instance, how much baseload electricity is necessary and how much grid distribution capacity is needed to connect a more dispersed generation network. We recommend that the Government provides a progress report in 2023 on the joint Ofgem and BEIS Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan and incorporates any relevant actions from this report into its ongoing efforts to enhance energy security and decarbonise the electricity grid.