The UK’s Energy Network Association said today that its members want to help deliver the low carbon, secure and reliable future the UK needs.
The ENA – an organisation made up of members who own and manage the UK’s pipes and wires said that networks have an essential role to play in our energy future. The organisation wants to see the UK Energy Act deliver on the renewable objectives it has set and said “we are campaigning to ensure it does by ensuring a clear licensing regime offshore and that the license process is established as soon as possible“.
Talking about its written submission to the Energy & Climate Change Select Committee inquiry into the future for Britain’s electricity networks, ENA said “achieving the Governments energy vision will require a flexible and supportive regulatory framework. To address this growing issue we have proposed that Government should supply the guiding mind for the future direction of the whole industry and ensure leadership and strategic direction. By this we do not mean state control nor some hybrid process such as the Strategic Rail Authority. We mean a level of clarity that allows us to make decisions and back those decisions with the necessary investment, which is estimated at over £235 billion across the energy sector by 2020.”
The Business Council for Sustainable Energy UK believes that by 2020 between two thirds and three-quarters of the new renewable energy generation capacity could come from offshore and onshore wind energy. ENA say that this will have implications for the supporting infrastructure needed to maintain energy system stability and that innovative approaches to optimising use of the present network as well as network expansion will need consideration.
The written submission notes that new overhead power lines are likely to be required and that these can only be delivered with supportive planning policies and a regulatory regime that enables timely investment in new network infrastructure.
