Reviewing Britain’s power market review

Policy Dispatch: The FORESIGHT podcast on the policies underpinning the energy transition

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“This isn’t a new concept. This isn’t a revolutionary, ground-breaking concept. It’s just something that is kind of a repackaging of a market that’s not doing what it’s supposed to.”

The United Kingdom has finally wrapped up a long-lasting review of its electricity market, opting to preserve the existing nationwide model instead of switching to a regional-based system.

Reforming the market is essential to meet climate targets, add more renewables into the system and, ultimately, allow the government to hit its clean power goal in 2030.

But it is still not entirely clear how the existing system will now be reformed. We know that moving to a so-called zonal system will not happen under this review, but there is still a lack of clarity on which policies will be adopted.

“We’re going to push all these levers, we’re going to try and move things around, and instead of actually fundamentally fixing the problem at the source, driving down bills, we are essentially playing Jenga. We are removing blocks from the bottom, repackaging them and putting them back on the top. All the while eroding the integrity of the system so that one thing could just knock it all over.”

Joining Sam on this episode of the Policy Dispatch is Sam Whitworth, energy market regulation adviser at British energy company Octopus.

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