NESO’s ambitious advice to government on achieving Clean Power by 2030 (CP2030)

On Tuesday 5 November, the newly formed National Energy System Operator (NESO) set out its ambitious pathway for Great Britain (GB) to have a clean power system by 2030 and become a net exporter of electricity. NESO believe this can be accomplished by deploying on average £40 billion of investment annually in energy infrastructure over the next five years, equating to an increase of 1% of GDP, and several reforms across industry processes. 

The CP2030 is focused on driving the government’s ambition of a clean electricity system by 2030. In their advice, NESO outlaid the possibility (and ability) to achieve CP2030 and emphasised that it will be achieved by prioritising ‘pace over perfection’ (see page 6 of the advice). 

To achieve CP2030, GB needs to build, connect and operate clean power by 2030. NESO defined a clean power system as being “where demand is met by clean sources (mainly renewables), with gas-fired generation used only rarely to ensure security of supply, primarily during sustained periods of low wind.” (see page 7 of the advice).

To achieve this, NESO has outlined two primary CP2030 pathways:

1. No new dispatchable power from hydrogen or gas with carbon capture and building 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 (“Further Flex and Renewables”); or
2. New dispatchable plants (totalling 2.7GW) and building 43GW offshore wind (“New Dispatch”).

Both options require a historical acceleration of development and coordination which needs to be a collective effort across the industry. To achieve CP2030, households, communities, and governments (regional and national) will need to collaborate to overcome the challenges associated with delivering this goal. 

NESO identified 6 critical “cross-cutting enablers” for clean power, including:

• Market and investment: decisions on CP2030 must give clear indicators to industry to ensure that there is confidence in the market
• Planning & consenting: planning reforms to streamline and accelerate projects are essential in meeting timelines
• Connections: connection queue reforms are need to deploy clean energy projects onto the system and be harmonious with the planning framework 
• Supply chains & workforce: sufficient resources and skills are required to deliver CP2030 projects
• Digitalisation and innovation: developing and deploying efficient systems will assist in accelerating the delivery of a clean power structure 
• NESO as a partner in delivering clean power: NESO will play a central role, including coordination and working as a partner with Government, Ofgem and key decision makers

The NESO advice provides details of what the power systems make-up of technologies and capacity could look like (wind, solar, battery, interconnectors). While these are only indicative figures they provide a direction of travel to the market in scaling up project delivery at pace. 

CP2030 requires maximum strides across the industry to achieve the projected increase of electricity demand as electrification accelerates. As the system transitions, this will need to be balanced to ensure that there is system flexibility and security of supply. The government is expected to consider NESO’s advice in preparing its CP2030 Action Plan which is expected to be published later this year.      

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised, please contact a member of our energy team.