Interconnection governance remains unclear, says Decc official

Electricity interconnection will remain a 'key part' of the UK's energy policy regardless of the election outcome, but uncertainty surrounds how it will be governed, a senior government official has said.

The deputy director of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) David Capper told a London conference that the government has a “clear policy” of “at least 5 GW of extra interconnection”, meaning greater interconnection is a certainty for the UK regardless of the election outcome.

He added that the government expects to see “more competition in onshore transmission” in the coming years.

However, the goverance of energy networks is less clear, he told delegates.

“One party has already said it wants an energy security board. They’ve also said that the regulator should have more teeth. But there is also a whole bunch of other stuff around governance.

“People speculate about an [independent system operator], they speculate about system architect, they talk about whether the code panels are fit for purpose.

“It will be incumbent on us all to look at the nature of those problems and try and figure out what the solutions might be. Those might not be institutional government solutions, there might well be other solutions that we need to consider.”

He also highlighted the uncertainty about whether the sale of electric vehicles will increase much in the next five years, but urged networks to be ready for when they do.

“I think it’s one of those things that is likely to take off at some point. We must try to think in relation to networks when that might be and plan around that,” he said.

More certain is that the roll out of smart meters expected to begin in autumn – and coinciding with the next parliament – will “enable things like time of use tariffs, smart appliances, faster switching, and putting the consumer more in control of the bill”, Capper said.