Utility Week

10 | OCTOBER 2022 | UTILITY WEEK "You've set a precedent now that you're willing to step in and take control of everyone's energy bill, which is hard." Josh Buckland, partner, Flint Global Energy "It would just be a very di erent and much more aggressive trajectory towards decarbonisation than you would otherwise." The new 2040 energy independence goal puts more onus on the review of how to achieve net zero in a business and growth friendly way, which Truss has asked former energy minister Chris Skidmore to carry out. Environmentalists have been heartened by the appointment of the Nottinghamshire MP, who led e orts during the Tory leader- ship campaign to ensure that candidates stuck to the 2050 net zero target. Jo e says: "Obviously, Chris is very much behind the zero agenda so it's a welcome appointment. "It [the review] will be largely based on existing understanding of what's possible in terms of delivering net zero being tweaked or reframed rather than a wholesale change. "He's clearly not going to want to do any- thing that alters the overall trajectory," says Bell, adding that Skidmore is likely to focus on the most economic way of achieving the goal, given the time available. The review is unlikely to lead to an aban- donment of the overall net-zero policy, he says: "It would certainly raise some ques- tions around the stability of the regime if government chose to do that post hoc." Bell, who is now director of policy for consultancy Stonehaven, argues that the review is probably designed to provide politi- cal cover for the new secretary of state Jacob Rees-Mogg to justify to his colleagues on the net-zero sceptical wing of the Conservative parliamentary party why the decarbonisa- tion drive shouldn't be abandoned. Some of the more expensive policies, such as subsidies for more experimental technologies like tidal power, may be up for grabs though, he speculates. Analysis Analysis continued from previous page Newport, who is now a senior fellow at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, is worried that the review will prove to be a more far-reaching "reset" of the carbon reduction target. He points out that the government must republish its Net Zero Strategy by March following a High Court ruling which stated that the current version of the document hadn't taken su• cient account of aviation emissions. Heat pump targets under scrutiny He is doubtful that existing targets to increase heat pump deployment, which he admits look a "little bit fanciful" against the current backdrop, will survive intact from Skidmore's review. Sunak o ered a harbinger of a potentially more sceptical approach to low-carbon heat- ing when he pledged during his failed lead- ership campaign to scrap the existing heat pump target. "In the short term, the relentless focus on cost of living is going to mean producing more rather than expensive demand-side measures," Newport says. The government's existing target to make electricity generation zero carbon by eradicating residual fossil fuel generation by 2030, may also come under the spotlight amid growing concerns about energy secu- rity, he says. Added to that, he wonders whether the push to electrify large areas of the economy and transport may be revisited in the light of increased worries, post-Ukraine invasion, about security of supply and blackouts. "If we're really worried about not being able to make it through winter without black- outs, is adding unprecedented numbers of EVs [electric vehicles] on to the grid each year deš nitely a good idea?" However, reining in these ambitions on low-carbon heat and power will make exist- ing targets in the carbon budgets, a set of markers that show how much emissions should reduce at š ve yearly intervals, "pretty impossible" to meet, he admits. While the headline 2050 net-zero goal is unlikely to be sacriš ced following Truss's campaign pledge to "double down" on the target, the proš le of reductions set out in the carbon budgets may be less sacrosanct. That said, in this and many other areas covered by the announcement, the govern- ment has yet to pin down key details. Buckland says: "It's a good sticking plas- ter for now but it's not going to solve the underlying challenges." David Blackman, policy correspondent Charities highlight confusion over Energy Price Guarantee Charities have highlighted confusion over how the Energy Price Guarantee will work, with some consumers mistakenly believing they will not be charged above the £2,500 headline š gure. Matt Cole, of the Fuel Bank Foundation, said he was already seeing worrying examples of vulnerable customers misinterpreting the gesture. He tells Utility Week: "I was at a Fuel Bank centre a couple of days ago where somebody was telling me that 'it is really hard that prices have gone up, but the prime minister has said that it's going to be £2,500. So once I get to £2,500 worth of top-ups it's great, the rest of it is for free'. "And then I start to really panic because that's the challenge, that people just don't really understand what the new price freeze really means. It's just another price cap in e ect, but we've called it a price freeze." Cole says that as a result, his organisation is about to launch an information campaign to "spell out" what the guarantee means for prepayment meter customers, as well as what it does not. Frazer Scott, chief executive of Energy Action Scotland, agrees that detail from the government "hasn't been very clear", referenc- ing recent confusion around how customers on š xed tari s will be treated. "Very few people were probably on š xed deals in comparison to the market as a whole, but nonetheless the fact that that was very unclear says a lot in the current circum- stances," Scott tells Utility Week. Both charities have raised further concerns about customer safety, with reports some are resorting to dangerous methods in an attempt to save money. Cole says: "People are refusing to let people in the door for gas safety inspections, just for the pure cost of the gas which will be used in that safety check. He adds: "There's every risk that people will do desperate things which can cause cata- strophic injury to themselves or potentially to others as a result of where we are now… people who are desperate just do desperate things. "We are irrational creatures when it comes to this. And there is a real terrifying prospect of the things that people may do. But one of the most terrifying is that people will do abso- lutely nothing and they will have no heat in the winter months." Adam John, senior reporter

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