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In April 2022 the UK published the British Energy Security Strategy, with the aim of achieving long-term independence from external energy sources and the decarbonisation of the UK’s power supply. The strategy was published by the UK Government in response to growing concern over the security, affordability, and sustainability of the UK’s energy supply. This concern is a result of both global and local issues, including spikes in global gas prices, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the failure of several UK energy suppliers, and the rise in the energy price cap in the UK.
👉 What is the British Energy Security Strategy? Why was it created? And what does it actually involve?
When trying to understand why the UK Government created its Energy Security Strategy, it’s important to consider the context of its creation.
Energy prices were already high when global events, such as the conflict in Ukraine, caused them to spike even further. In 2022 alone, electricity prices rose by 65.4% and gas prices rose by an incredible 128.9%. This has left many homes across the UK struggling to cover bills and to keep their homes warm.
Political moves by the UK and other countries across Europe, which aim to deter Russian aggression through the adoption of measures, such as country bans on Russian energy imports have only made the prices of energy more volatile.
The UK in particular finds itself vulnerable to the evolving supply crisis. In recent years Russian fuel made up almost 30% of the UK’s diesel supply, 10% of crude oil, and over 5% of its natural gas supply. This puts the UK in a difficult position.
The UK Government recognised the need to address these challenges, and determined that it needed to focus on the following issues in particular:
This is where the British Energy Security Strategy comes into play. It was developed by the UK Government as a response to these growing concerns.
So let’s take a look at the UK's ambition in a bit more detail...
This is one of the more controversial plans laid out in the British Energy Security Strategy. But the UK Government maintains that natural gas is an essential transition fuel and that it will be necessary to increase domestic production on an interim basis. The UK Government focuses its action in three areas:
Offshore wind plays a key role in the British Energy Security Strategy, with an ambition to increase the UK’s capacity by 2050. The current capacity of the UK’s wind supply is 11GW (gigawatts), but the UK Government plans to increase this to 50GW (something that would see the UK produce more electricity from offshore wind than it has ever produced from gas in any given year), ten percent of which would come from floating offshore wind facilities. These targets are higher than those set by the existing Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution (the UK’s Ten Point Plan), and its Net Zero Strategy.
The UK Government plans to facilitate this increase in wind capacity by shortening the approval process for a new project from four years down to one, as well as setting up a fast-track approvals route for priority projects.
It's not just the UK's wind power capacity that the UK Government wants to increase, but also its capacity to produce solar energy. The current capacity of the UK is 14GW, but the UK Government wants to increase significantly to 70GW by as early as 2035. It plans to achieve this by reducing the planning process for both ground mounted and rooftop solar installations.
The British Energy Security Strategy set an ambitious target, requiring the UK to triple its nuclear output by 2050. This will enable the UK to meet 25% of its electricity demand via nuclear energy. The Government plans to increase the UK’s nuclear energy production by focusing on the following:
The British Energy Security Strategy refers to hydrogen as a low carbon super-fuel of the future and commits the UK to a doubling of its current hydrogen production. The new target is 10GW by 2030, with half of this coming from electrolytic hydrogen (the greenest method of hydrogen production). So how exactly will the UK Government achieve these targets?
As the UK increases its production of renewable energy, it will also be necessary to expand the network in line with this. The British Energy Security Strategy recognises this by promising to establish the Future System Operator (FSO). Expected to be functional by 2024, the FSO will be responsible for energy planning and will be responsible for ensuring energy resilience in the UK, and the integration of emerging renewable technologies with existing energy networks.
The UK also committed to establishing a Holistic Network Design. It is part of the transition towards the Centralised Strategic Network Planning model and gives an overview of the infrastructure needed to deliver on the UK’s offshore wind targets.
The British Energy Security Strategy is a significant step forward in achieving the UK’s decarbonisation goals, but commentators believe that the strategy is vague on specifics. Undoubtedly, the targets set by the British Energy Security Strategy are ambitious in nature and meeting them will be a significant challenge for the UK. In the section below we take a closer look at what these challenges are.
There’s no way around it, until the UK builds up its own energy capacity it’s exposed to international energy markets, which means that, in the short term at least, the UK will feel the impact of any energy price spikes. As other countries also phase out their reliance on Russian energy there is the risk of supply disruption across Europe, something that could also impact the UK.
Undoubtedly, the British Energy Security Strategy is more robust when it comes to long-term initiatives. However, there are still concerns that some of the targets will be difficult to deliver. For example:
The new commitments laid out by the UK Government in its Energy Security Strategy are hugely ambitious. In order to meet the targets set by the UK Government, a concerted effort will be needed by the government, business and industry in the UK - they will have to deliver quickly and at scale. The only way to do this is for the UK Government to translate its targets into policy that will actually deliver on the UK’s net zero ambitions.
Many experts believe that more short term solutions are needed if we’re going to reach net zero emission, such as the use of onshore wind, and the focusing on policies that help homes across the UK to become more energy efficient, something that will have the added benefit of cutting down on energy expenses for UK households.
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If you enjoyed this article, and would like to learn more about other policies affecting the climate fight in the UK, why not check out Greenly’s blog.
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