Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Recommendation 65
Eleventh Report - Decarbonisation of the power sector
Published 28 Apr 2023
Paragraph 247
Addressed to Department for Business and Trade
Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee Decarbonisation of the power sector All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
To address the delivery risks to the 2035 target, the Government will need to ensure that planning and environmental authorities are properly resourced, that planning guidance is aligned with its decarbonisation goals and that the process is streamlined. Ofgem needs to approve investment in the electricity networks ahead of need and network owners need to deliver on their business plans. The process to securing a grid connection must be overhauled. Demand-side flexibility needs to be treated as an equal partner to supply and customers, who are paying for all this new infrastructure, must be at the heart of the transition. This will only be achieved with improved market signals to reward flexible services and reform of the energy retail sector. Ofgem and the Future System Operator should be given clear duties to deliver on net zero.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Eleventh Report - Decarbonisation of the power sector (HC 283), paragraph 247, 28 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 July 2023 (deadline 28 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and responds to each recommendation, planning annual reporting on power sector decarbonisation while setting out where it will not adopt specific proposals.
- On the call for a long-term delivery plan, the government "plans to report on its delivery, and overall plan to deliver the commitment, on an annual basis", and is strengthening its portfolio management approach.
- On a UK-wide onshore wind target, it states that setting one "would potentially undermine the flexibility needed" across the UK.
- On biomass, it has "no plans to remove support prior to 2027" for stations already supported, saying they "have a statutory right to their existing support".
- On Ofgem's duties, it is "content to amend" Ofgem's existing duty on greenhouse gases to refer specifically to the net zero targets in the Climate Change Act 2008.