Meeting an ambitious challenge

The Great Britain (GB) electricity grid is in a state of transition. The 2008 UK Climate Change Act sets a legally binding commitment to ensure the UK reduces its greenhouse gas emission by 100% from 1990 levels by 2050 with the electricity industry to support meeting this target by decarbonising by 2035.  This commitment has become known as the ‘net zero target’. To meet this challenge, GB will require significant investment in renewable and decarbonised generation as well as the transmission and distribution networks over the course of the next 30 years.  Policies will need to strengthen to ensure the power market and remuneration mechanisms deliver the necessary signals to incentivise investment when and where required.

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A challenge—and an opportunity

The objective of our GE Vernova study is to explore credible least cost pathways of future generation and transmission investment in Great Britain that would be required if the UK is to urgently meet its decarbonization goals. Secondly, it serves to illustrate how power plants under each pathway would operate to meet demand in the future and the implication on the system as a whole, in particular in relation to the transmission network.

White paper

The power system of the future will be complex and multifaceted. For Great Britain to meet this ambitious challenge, it will need to:

   1. Enable and accelerate investments
   2. Expedite the implementation of market reforms
   3. Adapt energy policy and regulation.

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