Leader: the energy system is being transformed in a political vacuum

While political rows continue over the prospect of an energy price cap, a potentially far more important conversation is taking place on the network side of the energy sector. Transformative change is blasting its way through business-as-usual for the power system, with disruptive behaviours and technologies already ushering in new players and new business models, and that process can only accelerate. You won’t read about it in the national media or any political party’s manifesto, but by 2030, the way consumers interact with the power system will have profoundly changed.

The shift will govern how consumers power their homes; how they charge their vehicles; whether they have a domestic battery installed; if they sign up to community energy schemes. The structure of the future power system will touch every consumer and business in the country, in multiple ways.

It’s strange, then, how little political attention it gets. A suggested blueprint for the change has been laid out by the Future Power System Architecture project, led by the IET and Energy Systems Catapult, which published its second report this week. The project was funded by Innovate UK in phase 2 and BEIS in phase 1, but its outputs do not appear to have been taken to government’s heart. There was no minister present at the launch of either project report.

The absence will have been felt by the project’s leaders, who should be congratulated on a job well done. Several of them were at Utility Week Live last month, and highlights from their presentations are included in our special feature on flexibility.

It’s not too late for government to make a positive impact. There is an urgent need for an overarching vision and common language to guide power system change, which can only be delivered at a policy level. Politicians need to catalyse transformation by adopting a leading role in this debate – it would be far more constructive than their endless to-ing and fro-ing on price caps.