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Shadow energy minister Alan Whitehead has said a systems architect is “a very attractive proposition” as the UK energy market starts to face the consequences of decisions made in the past.
Whitehead said a central body able to pull different elements of the system together, such as a systems architect, will be needed to navigate the approaching “period of consequences”.
It would also ensure people act in the long-term best interest of the system going forwards, despite short-term consequences.
A systems architect would reinstate investor confidence in the UK energy market by providing a “reasonably stable process” and combat the “chopping and changing and swirling” approach the Conservatives have to renewables subsidy, ensuring the right level of investment is made in the right areas.
Whitehead added that some people are “proposing systems as if it hasn’t really changed and we could just get on with business as usual and it will all work out”.
But Whitehead said there are already too much renewable generation on the system “to go back”.
He also said that one of the potential issues with a systems architect is what it would mean for the political process.
He said: “A system architect would need to have a high degree of political consensus and agreement on what it was that the architect looked at, and what it was that is politically immovable as a result.”
In January the Energy and Climate Change Committee were told by the Energy Technologies Institute that Ofgem cannot achieve a whole systems view alone.
But it added that a central planning body, such as a systems architect “won’t work, no chance”.
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