Writing exclusively for The Herald, Keith Anderson, Chief Executive of ScottishPower, argues that not only must Scotland retain its focus on decarbonisation and reaching net zero, but that the current global energy crisis underlines the need to rapidly accelerate our shift to renewables

 

JUST four months ago, the world’s largest climate change conference was held in our home city. COP26 and the resulting Glasgow Climate Pact promised to turn the 2020s into a decade of climate action and support.

Driven by the latest science, the Pact urges countries to revisit and strengthen their 2030 emissions reductions targets. And it contains historic text on coal, calling on countries to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and phase down coal power. 

And yet for many, given recent events, the global headlines of COP already seem a long time ago. 

Today, the world is facing immense and immediate dangers on which it is rightly focussed. 

Yet, the chronic threat of climate change has not gone away. 

This was made clear in a recent report from the United Nations IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which showed the effects our changing climate is already having around the world, from irreversible damage to ecosystems, to displacing people from their homes. 

It’s clear the political will for the oil and gas transition remains and indeed is looking to accelerate across the world.

The terrible events in Ukraine and their impact on global energy markets has brought into sharp focus the scale of the UK’s exposure to hydrocarbons and the need, from the perspective of national security, to accelerate the transition to an all-electric economy that will also deliver net zero. 

For the last 12 months energy markets have experienced unprecedented volatility, that has now been exacerbated by the ongoing situation in Ukraine. 

Wholesale energy costs have hit record highs and the April 1 price cap increase takes effect this week. 

We are all too aware of the consequences for consumers and suppliers, particularly since many UK homes are so heavily dependent on gas for heat, and many are now feeling a real cost of living crisis through rising bills, not just in energy but at the pumps and in the supermarket.

This moment calls on all of us – government, industry and regulator – to re-examine our assumptions and how we have done things in the past.  Accelerating the shift to green energy – a source of power we have in abundance in the UK – will ensure cleaner, homegrown electricity that gives us green energy security at the same time.  

Investing with urgency in renewable generation and the pylons, pipes and wires in the electricity grid to transport it is critical and at ScottishPower we are investing billions to support this transition.  

The UK has the opportunity to build on its global leadership position in renewable power and seize this moment. The Government has set out its ambitions to continue to be a global offshore powerhouse, and we await the new energy strategy setting out equally ambitious targets for onshore and solar – two of the cheapest ways to generate electricity which can also be delivered quickly.  

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At the same time new technologies like green hydrogen and battery storage are also advancing rapidly which make renewable power even more efficient when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.  

The reality is the time to deliver is short. 

We have until just 2030 to halve global emissions if we are to limit the rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees, which the science says will avoid the worst effects of climate change. And what we are seeing now is also the immediate benefits to be had in homes across the country if we step up and deliver on COP26.

At ScottishPower, we are part of the solution. We are unique, as the UK’s only fully integrated energy company, in seeing right across the value chain: building onshore, offshore and solar;  connecting renewables to the grid to allow the take-up of EVs and heat pumps; and working with our retail customers to manage their energy use. 

As the first energy company in the UK to ditch coal and gas and go 100% green, transforming to a cleaner electric future has been central to our strategy for the last 15 years. We are now redoubling our efforts and our investments. We need to turn this from a marathon into a sprint.

All the power we generate – enough to power more than two million homes – now comes from our 40 onshore and offshore wind farms. 

Our 70,000 miles of electricity lines across southern Scotland, Merseyside and north Wales have connected something like a third of all the UK’s wind power to the grid and provide power to 3.5 million homes and businesses. 

Add to that our 4.5 million retail customers, and we have multiple customer touchpoints – helping to deliver the biggest electricity transformation we’ve ever seen.

We’ve fundamentally changed our mind-set. Everything we do now is determined through the prism of net zero. And now’s the time for others to do the same.
We don’t just talk about it. We deliver.

That means injecting hard cash into revolutionising every aspect of the UK’s energy system. 

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From wind and solar power plants to battery storage, from smart grids to EV charge-points and hydrogen electrolysers. 

Take ScotWind, the largest auction of Scottish seabed in recent times, which will deliver the next generation of offshore wind power.  

It is a great example of the ambitious approach we are taking where we will be developing 7GW of floating and fixed windfarms which together will generate enough clean energy to power 8.5 million homes.  

We expect the three projects we are working on to deliver more than £20 billion of investment, with around £10 billion of that investment in Scotland – investment in local communities, supply chains and infrastructure.

We’re partnering with Shell on two of these projects in the North Sea which is living proof of the green energy transition in action – a combination of our expertise in building large-scale wind projects and Shell’s fifty years of experience working in the North Sea. 

By working together, we’ll not only be creating thousands of new jobs in Scotland – we’ll also be helping experienced people in the oil and gas industry to move into the green economy.

But if we want to keep up the pace and ambition we need governments to clear some of the barriers in the way.   

It takes a huge amount of time for new projects to get off the drawing board and into construction. On average it can be ten years in some case to get projects through the planning and consents process. 

This cannot continue if the UK wants to bring more British green on the system faster.

Restrictions on planning resources at all levels of the system, from national government through to local authorities, needs to be urgently addressed. Especially as the Prime Minister has stated that the Government is looking for rate of renewable energy construction to double.

If we want to get serious about delivering green energy security in the national interest.

If we want to get serious about accelerating towards net zero whilst keeping costs down, it’s time to rip up the red tape.   

It’s not only renewable generation projects impacted by capacity restrictions in the planning process, we are also seeing serious delays in nationally important grid infrastructure investments.

For context, ScottishPower’s Distribution and Transmission Network Operator SP Energy Networks keeps electricity flowing to 3.5 million homes and businesses throughout Scotland, Wales and England. 

As the backbone of reaching net zero, electricity networks facilitate renewable power onto the grid and ensure we’re prepared for the increasing electrification of transport and heat.

OVER the next decade, we’re going to see more and more EVs on our roads and the growing installation of electric heat pumps as an alternative to gas boilers. 
The current Distribution Price Control, that will look to deliver the additional capacity to meet the demand for new heat pumps and EVs in the next decade, is now of national importance. 

The way we make electricity is changing and how we use it is increasing. 

Our electricity highways, the grid, have to be able to cope with a doubling demand to meet our green ambitions, it’s time to go further, faster, to deliver the network investment we’ll need to meet the UK’s net zero goals. 

For this we need a regulator that is working smarter to keep pace with the acceleration of the UK’s green ambition. 

As scale of delivery and investment increases to match consumer demand the Regulator has to be pragmatic and adapt to the reality of the current crisis. 
We need the regulator to step up, seize the moment, and enable investment in the UK energy sector to meet demand and accelerate the transition to decarbonisation and 
net zero. 

Unless we get to net zero, the consequences for this country, for the citizens of this country, for the environment, and for the world are catastrophic. 

No matter what is happening in the economy from year to year,  the importance of that goal is still as important today as it was yesterday. 

As we look ahead to the upcoming energy strategy we hope Government not only sets out increased ambition but, importantly, removes some of the barriers in the way of companies like us delivering in the national interest.  

Recent months have demonstrated just how vital it is we get on and make good on the collective agreement at COP26.

Government and businesses like ours at ScottishPower must stay focused on delivering on our long term goal of net zero by 2050.

www.scottishpower.co.uk