Our Energy Policy Group (EPG) is the only academic research group in the UK focusing on enabling government-level policy and regulatory change that is essential to transforming the system by taking a holistic approach to integrating operations. We’re an established thought leader in this sector with the evidence and ideas essential to enabling transformation. Our research has already been translated into recommendations adopted by energy policymakers.
We’ve been working on this issue for many years, producing a significant body of work through our Innovation and Governance for Future Energy Systems (IGov) research project.
The UK’s ‘whole energy system’ is made up of three key elements: electricity, heating and transport. Altogether, they create 85% of greenhouse gas emissions, so meeting the Government’s target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 demands innovative and ambitious approaches across all three elements in an integrated way.
The adopted recommendations from our Energy Policy Unit are improving resilience in the broader UK energy sector, opening market competition and better enabling the meeting of the 2050 net zero target by increasing opportunities for innovators to play a more significant role.
We’ve done that by developing a fit-for-purpose institutional framework that enables the journey to net zero to be cost-effective, just and secure. Along the way, we’ve also developed trusted advisory relationships with industry, the regulator (Ofgem) and policy leaders and delivered robust market and policy analysis.
It’s all been vital to driving the shift from engagement, with the need for reform, to adopting the frameworks that are now actively reforming governance.
As well as inspiring the creation of a “fourth principle” for energy policy: the agility principle, introduced by the BEIS Secretary of State in 2018, our Energy Policy Unit has:
Our IGov framework continues to drive the agenda and directly inform specific aspects of how the Government will meet its net zero ambitions and achieve a fairer, more agile energy system.