ADBA responds to call for evidence into decarbonising the power sector

The UK government’s Public Accounts Committee recently launched a call for evidence into the government’s pathway to achieve decarbonisation of the power sector while ensuring energy security and affordability for consumers. ADBA responded to the survey highlighting the importance of recognising the AD sector as a mature, ready-to-launch technology that can help immediate decarbonisation while ensuring a secure and affordable energy system.

While in 2021 the government set a target to decarbonise the power sector by 2035, the circumstances have changed in the global energy sector since then, mainly due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine among other factors. To add to that, as other sectors like transport and heating in buildings transition to electricity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the strain on the electricity sector is expected to increase over the coming years.

Decarbonising in these circumstances will require the Government to manage a range of complex challenges, including ensuring the right mix of technologies, attracting investment in new generation energy, and modernising energy networks.

The Public Accounts Committee launched this inquiry based on the National Audit Office (NAO) investigation into decarbonising the power sector. Through this call for evidence, the Committee gathered evidence from stakeholders across the power sector to feed into the enquiry into the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy on how it is set up to achieve power sector decarbonisation while maintaining the security of electricity supply and affordability for consumers and taxpayers.

ADBA’s response to the call for evidence outlined the lack of recognition for AD as a homegrown, stead energy source and its potential in the government’s vision and pathway to achieve a resilient and decarbonised power sector, highlighting the areas to provide policy support to help the sector reach full potential. We also spotlighted an ongoing challenge the industry faces when obtaining connections to export additional capacity to the electrical grid and urged the government to immediately resolve the issue. We are keeping an eye out for the government’s outcome to be published in due course.