Numerous, interlocking dimensions of improvement are flagged as necessary in the ENA’s Energy Innovation Atlas, a report developed by consultants LCP Delta.

LCP Delta interviewed 300 industry representatives for their views on innovation needed to achieve Net Zero. The study sought input on five key pillars of innovation;

• developing assets and infrastructure,
• facilitating digitalisation,
• managing assets and optimising systems,
• meeting customers’ needs, and
• attracting talent and investment

Over eight workshops and associated online consultations, LCP Delta and the ENA explored these key pillars to identify 24 innovation ‘way points’, characterised by knotty challenges, all requiring a vision on managers’ change of mindset and skills.

Key findings from the report include:

• Developing by 2028 a supply chain that is fit-for-purpose, able to underpin an expansion I Britain’s transmission & distribution network, enabling radical transformation in their functions
• Better communication within and external to the power industry, supporting a ‘whole systems’ approach.
• Opening up access to markets access, welcoming in smaller innovators to fair and easy participation, as well as easing funding access to smaller players.
• Clarifying a workable definition of energy storage, and freeing its providers to operate assets more proactively it across the network, against a proposed deadline of 2032.
• Communicating better with customers and the wider public, ensure roles and their consequences in who and how Britain’s energy system must be decarbonised. New skills functions and data sets are required.

Commenting on the report’s findings, Tom Veli, energy networks head at LCP Delta, the ENA’s advisors, said:

“Energy networks are at a critical point with demand beginning to increase rapidly as the low-carbon economy picks up further.

“This means that operators are facing the challenge of rapidly developing their networks as they look to accommodate the surging demand.

“This monumental shift imposes extra responsibilities on the networks, particularly in respect of interactions with customers, with the industry, alongside regulators and policymakers. The industry must drive a concerted effort into delivering the innovations that are needed.

To access the full report, click here.

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An unprecedented 164GW of connection requests were registered in the twelve months to October. That’s equivalent – says the Energy Networks Association – to a second national grid’s worth of generation capacity.

Grid operators represented by the body say they are spending £26 billion in coming years – including £9 billion in the five years to 2026 – to upgrade infrastructure ready for Net Zero.

Steps identified in the ENA’s new action plan to achieve green power connections faster:

• Weeding the applications queue, so plug-ready projects can leapfrog designs months or years from completion. In a two-month blitz until June, the ENA will review accepted permits outstanding from before 2018 , and begin a three-step plan to either advance or purge them.
• Improving co-ordination between transmission operators and DNOs. Clearer technical boundaries are needed, the body says.
• New contract structures for storage customers, ensuring greater flexibility.

56GW of utility-scale batteries are now contracted for connection, says the report, the equivalent of 14 Drax power stations. As much as five times more will be needed by 2030, NG-ESO forecasts.

A problem with grid-scale storage is its need for consistent access but at only infrequent usage. That eats up scarce capacity on power lines, making investment case hard to justify.

Injecting urgency into the connections process is accepted by all sides.  To achieve it, the ENA convenes a strategic connections group, comprising heads of all DNOs and the grid, plus representatives from Ofgem and Whitehall.

The grid cos say top level co-ordination is needed to oversee existing connection initiatives at regional level or higher.

“Developers and networks have connected around 50GW of renewable power since the 1990s”, said David Boyer, a director at the ENA. “If we are to meet Net Zero, we need to deliver even more, and do it even faster”.

“Fundamental change is needed”, the ENA official went on. “Through the regulatory regime, we need to overhaul how connections are managed and enable networks to invest in capacity early. This early investment is crucial if we are to connect the massive amounts of renewables and batteries we know are needed in the coming decade”,

Read the ENA plan here.

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The Electricity Networks Association and the Green Alliance claim backing from 200 energy practitioner & environmental groups including Renewable UK, as they warn Net Zero secretary Grant Shapps, pictured, that Britain will not achieve its 2050 goal of no excess carbon emissions, without the target being written into Ofgem’s goals.

Essential to securing the pledge, enshrined in the 2008 Climate Change Act, is giving Ofgem executive powers of oversight towards the goal, via their inclusion in the Energy Security Bill now before Parliament, ENA chief executive Lawrence Slade and Green Alliance director Shaun Spiers tell the secretary of state in their open letter.

“Government departments and the Future System Operator are all aligned with the 2008 Act, and it is vitally important that the regulator be aligned also”, the pair tell the energy secretary.

“Empowering Ofgem with a Net Zero mandate will allow for strategic investment, removing a clear barrier to investment in the low-cost, low-carbon energy system we are all working towards”, the practitioners tell the minister.

“As the first piece of primary legislation of this type in a decade, the Energy Security Bill is the prime opportunity to deliver this vital change”.

In addition, ministers need to empower Ofgem with its long-awaited Strategic Policy Statement, enabling the agency to embed Net Zero deeper into its policy direction.

The immediate pressures of  tackling energy’s role in the cost of living crisis and strategic questions around energy security should not deter the government from addressing already committed long term goals, the bodies urge.

The letter comes as Ofgem seeks inputs from network firms over steps towards radical decentralisation and decarbonisation of Britain’s electricity systems.

The ENA nurtures strategic long-term thinking among Britain’s operators and investors in transmission & distribution networks.  Bodies lending their backing to the latest plea include the Association of Decentralised Energy, the Global Infrastructure Investment Association & the Electricity Storage Network.

The end of March is the government’s deadline to comply with a High Court judgement secured by green groups to strengthen its Net Zero strategy.  Judges agreed eight months ago with campaigners that Westminster’s published measures towards the goal lack necessary detail.

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Energy Networks Association (ENA) is urging stakeholders to respond to their call for evidence to help unlock early investment in the grid to support a green economic recovery.

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Network data from all Britain’s electricity and gas network operators will be pulled into an integrated, digital energy system map covering all of Great Britain. The map will provide customers with information about energy network assets, where those assets are located as well as who owns them.

Making this information available will improve investment decisions, support new markets like the UK’s local flexibility market, and help bring new renewable connections to the energy networks.

Driven by decarbonisation, digitisation and decentralisation, the digital system map is an important way that energy networks operators can serve their customers by helping them develop quicker, more efficient, and cheaper ways to deliver a cleaner energy system.

Dan Clarke, head of Innovation at Energy Networks Association which represents the UK and Ireland’s energy networks businesses said, “Providing more transparency of the electricity and gas networks will help companies in and out of the energy industry to make investment decisions more intelligently. Crucially it can support emerging markets and help projects like new renewables sites or electric vehicle fleets connect to the networks.”

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