National Grid calls for creation of a heat delivery board

As part of our Countdown to COP series, Utility Week speaks to National Grid’s director of COP26, Duncan Burt. He discusses the need for leadership on both the strategies to get us to net zero and the behavioural changes that will be needed.

Duncan Burt describes himself as a “glass half-full kind of person” when it comes to the net zero debate. However, he is in no doubt of the scale of the challenge facing the UK over the next 15 years.

National Grid’s director of COP26 says last week’s commitment from the government to reduce emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, is “absolutely the right ambition for a country hosting COP”. He stresses there are still “a lot of hard yards” to further decarbonise the power gird but says the greater obstacles will come in areas that more directly touch consumers everyday lives – most notably heating.

To this end, he is calling for a body to be established to lead on both the strategy and a nationwide public engagement campaign.

The former director of operations for the electricity systems operator, who took up his current role in February, set out his thoughts in an interview with Utility Week.

The Energy Awareness Gap

As a principal partner of the UN climate conference, to be held in Glasgow in November, National Grid is hoping to capitalise on the profile of the summit to draw consumers into the climate debate.

Last week, the company published the results of a survey that highlighted a “hopelessness” felt by many that, although they want to support decarbonisation, they often don’t know how.

In a bid to fill this “energy awareness gap” National Grid has produced a smart bulb that glows green when the electricity is at its greenest.

It may be seen as a gimmick by some but Burt believes regular signs that net zero is progressing, and that everyone has a role to play, are going to become increasingly important.

He says: “The Green Light Signal picks up the carbon intensity in your local grid. So, if you live in Stockport you’ll see you live in one of the lowest carbon grids in the world. In places like Perth, Edinburgh, Stirling too it will be green most of the time. The hope is that it encourages people to take further steps to capitalise on that green power.”

To give the public the confidence to really engage in decarbonisation Burt believes a massive communications drive is necessary.

He says: “You need to provide a really topline government-level coordination of the technical transition and the behavioural challenge.

“Some of this will only go as quickly as the economics and the appetite of the public will allow it to. You can’t force these things down people’s throats.

“It’s got to be a measured way of matching technology against the way people are going to use it. If you get the message right, the public can be a powerful advocate. You now have electric vehicle (EV) drivers on social media who are talking about how much more comfortable and cheaper EVs are. They are sharing the fact that this is a new cleaner source of transport with savings all round. When you get that combination it’s very powerful.”

Burt says this scenario is only possible because “an awful lot of the groundwork” has been done for electrification of heat, allowing costs to come down more rapidly.

He believes that the next decade will see mass electrification of transport become a reality but points to even more difficult tasks ahead – “the decade after that has to be the one where decarbonised heat becomes really big”.

In the foothills of heat decarbonisation

The first step in this journey is the heat and buildings strategy, due to be published next month. Burt says he expects the government to continue its approach of supporting “a tapestry of heating solutions”.

He adds: “We are in the foothills of heat decarbonisation and it feels very early to make any more precise decision than that. There may be hybrid or regional solutions but we need to keep putting a lot of effort into the development of both electric heating and hydrogen.”

He says that while there is little time to waste if we are to reach targets such as the installation of 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028, “it’s more important to get it right and build once and carefully a policy framework for heat that can be as successful as the policy framework for offshore wind”.

Burt is passionate about the creation of a body to oversee decarbonisation of heat – both the technical aspects and the way the message is communicated to the public.

“Heat is a multi-layered public engagement challenge for the industry and the government. We see the real need for the establishment of a heat delivery body that would work very much like Digital UK did on the digital switchover.

“We need a body that can work both strategically, to plan and work with government policy, but can also then do the heavy lifting on public engagement. Without such a body it’s very difficult to see how we get the alignment of consumer messaging with the right policy that delivers that really large investment. That’s investment not just in assets but the skills and the industries that go alongside that to really deliver a great consumer experience through that transition.”

Offshore wind presents a unique opportunity

While decarbonisation of heat may be the hardest nut to crack, Burt is keen for the pressure to be kept up on all of the fronts necessary for reaching net zero.

The target of deploying 40GW of offshore wind by 2030 is another vital element of this and Burt says he is keen to see further action on developing an offshore electricity network – a subject the government is currently reviewing.

Once again, Burt sees the involvement of the public as essential, adding that “we have to take local communities around these projects with us”.

He reiterates his positive view in the progress that has been made so far being a catalyst for further and greater change. This is a theme he believes should be at the centre of COP.

“We have a great story to tell about the huge decarbonisation of the power grid. We’re running at less than 2 per cent of the nation’s energy now supplied by coal and there are lessons good and bad on how that has been achieved for the rest of the world. The North Sea and the growth of offshore wind presents a unique opportunity for the UK.”

On COP itself, Burt says he understands the concerns of some prominent commentators, such as Greta Thunberg, about holding an international summit while many parts of the world are still in the grip of coronavirus surges.

“We are keen to see a successful COP rather than a COP in November in particular but it’s a very hard decision for the UN and the UK government to make. It is incredibly important to keep moving towards rapid decarbonisation around the world and we have seen some incredibly positive signs on this around the world.”

Regardless of whether COP does take place in person this November, Burt sees no let up in the pressure for tangible signs that the net zero process is on track.

“If you look at the graphs the simple challenge for the UK – although of course it’s not simple – is to carry on that straight decline we’ve achieved over the last seven or eight years over the next 15 and we will reach that 78 per cent target.

“It is in our hands and there is clearly a collective will to achieve that. We have to keep reminding people this is a positive story.”