ADE: 'Proposals to reform electricity market are a make-or-break moment for net zero'

Caroline Bragg, Director of Policy and Research at the Association for Decentralised Energy, said:A net zero electricity system is one where flexibility enables and empowers the massive amount of renewable generation capacity coming onto the system. Flexing demand will give people a better, cheaper electricity service and avoid the need to massively over-invest in generation and networks. Government's publication of its initial round of REMA confirms what has been known for a long time - the current system is broken and none of the markets can get us to net zero by 2035. REMA is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure that we not only reach net zero on time but that it is done in the most efficient way possible. Whilst the need to encourage investment to 50GW of offshore wind gets the most airtime, flexibility will be crucial to balancing the books - flexing demand to give people a better, cheaper electricity service and avoid the need to massively over-invest in generation and networks. The newly announced proposals to reform electricity market arrangements are the make-or-break moment to get this right. By 2027, BEIS reckons that it will have locked in a 1/3 of what will still be there in 2035 when the Government aims to have fully decarbonised the system. The clock is therefore most definitely ticking.