Responding to the Government’s Clean Power Action Plan, Energy UK’s chief executive, Dhara Vyas said:
“The energy industry welcomes the ambition behind the Clean Power Action Plan because it can accelerate the benefits that will be felt by people across the country through increased energy security, investment, growth and job creation.
“Meeting the goal however is a formidable challenge and can only happen by tackling barriers and delays that will otherwise jeopardise this ambition and which have been constraining the country’s economic growth for some time.
“So we support the need for fundamental changes that speed up the planning process, enable the swift construction of critical infrastructure, cutting the time for grid connections and enabling more homes and more businesses to benefit from the expansion of clean energy far more quickly. A clean power system must also include the necessary expansion of other established and emerging clean technologies, including storage and flexibility.
“An undertaking of this scale obviously needs a comprehensive plan so we look forward to reading the detail. We also again underline the need for the clean energy drive to be accompanied by a focus on improving things for customers – not only by increasing our own sources of power to protect them from volatile energy costs, but by putting in place long term, targeted support for households struggling to afford bills, improving the energy efficiency of homes and buildings, and supporting the switch to cleaner and ultimately cheaper ways of heating and travelling.”