Industry Keynote Panel: resetting the UK’s energy ambition

25 Jun 2025

Industry Keynote Panel: resetting the UK’s energy ambition

🏠︎ | Blog | Industry Keynote Panel: resetting the UK’s energy ambition

Event: Reset Connect 2025
Date: 25 June 2025
Speakers: Carl Trowell, President, UK Strategic Infrastructure, National Grid. Angus McCarey, CEO, Uswitch. Chris Stark, Head of Mission Control, Clean Power 2030
Estimated read time: 6 minutes

Quick read summary

This panel explored what it really takes to deliver the UK’s energy transition at pace, not as a climate pledge but as an infrastructure, affordability and competitiveness programme.

The discussion matters now because public consent will hinge on consumer outcomes, while delivery risk is rising as grid constraints, planning timelines and supply chain capacity collide.

You will gain a clearer picture of why Clean Power 2030 is being run as a mission, where the bottlenecks sit and what leaders can do to translate national ambition into practical, investable action.

The energy transition is being reframed around resilience and self interest

Chris Stark set an early thesis that recurred throughout the session, the energy transition is accelerating globally because countries are pursuing resilience, lower exposure to fossil fuel volatility and stronger industrial positioning, not virtue.

He described the rise of “electrostates”, economies building abundant low cost electricity systems and then using that electricity to power transport, heating, cooling and industry. In this framing, the UK’s energy ambition becomes a competitiveness question. Move quickly, capture the benefits of electrification, protect households and businesses from fuel price shocks and build domestic capability in key technologies.

For a commercial reader, this matters because the investment case is no longer a niche sustainability narrative. It is an economic and operating model shift, with electricity as the backbone input for growth, productivity and security.

Clean Power 2030 is an execution discipline, designed to remove delay

Stark positioned Clean Power 2030 as a mission with delivery mechanics, not a distant target. He argued that 60 to 70 percent of the emissions reduction pathway depends on electrifying the economy with clean power, which turns the power system into the enabling platform for everything that follows.

The practical design choice is to set clear national goals for wind, solar, storage and grid, then use those goals as the test for every major policy and regulatory decision. Planning reforms, contract for difference reform and wholesale market decisions are framed against the delivery outcome, megawatts and gigawatts connected on time, at a price the public can accept.

That approach matters because delay is not neutral. Stark and Carl Trowell both stressed that slippage drives cost, undermines confidence and makes the consumer story harder to sustain.

The grid connection queue is not admin, it is the constraint that shapes the market

If there was one system bottleneck repeatedly referenced, it was the grid connection queue. Stark described a queue that has grown tenfold in five years, slowing new generation, storage and major demand connections.

The proposed response is intentionally interventionist. Translate national targets into regional goals, then reorder the queue so the projects most aligned with the 2030 system sit at the front. Stark described this as “genuine radicalism”, designed to unlock a wave of projects by prioritising what is needed for the clean power mix.

For investors, developers and major energy users, the implication is straightforward. Queue reform is not a technical footnote, it is a market shaping decision that determines which projects become real and when.

This is also where grid connection queue reform becomes practical. It is not only about faster renewables, it is also about unlocking electrification across industry and the built environment, because demand connections are competing for the same constrained system capacity.

Delivery reality, planning, supply chain and system access decide the pace

Carl Trowell translated policy ambition into a delivery lens. He highlighted a simple but uncomfortable fact, December 2030 is 66 months away and National Grid Transmission has 86 major projects to deliver in that window.

From his perspective, the constraints are clear. The physical build is rarely the longest phase, planning and consenting can consume around two thirds of the timeline, which makes community engagement a delivery dependency, not a comms exercise. Supply chain readiness also matters, particularly where domestic capability is expected to scale quickly. System access can be a hidden limiter because parts of the existing network must be taken offline to connect new assets.

This is where the conversation becomes most operational. It also reinforces why Clean Power 2030 is being run as a mission, it is an attempt to coordinate government, regulators and delivery organisations around a shared critical path.

The consumer outcome is the product, affordability is the feature

Angus McCarey brought the discussion to the point that ultimately determines durability, what it feels like to a household. His argument was blunt, the average household experiences the transition through affordability and mass market adoption follows value, ease and control.

He framed consumer motivation using the “four Cs”, cost, convenience, control and conscience. The order matters. Cost remains the primary driver in the mass market, convenience is what keeps people moving once they start, control is what makes the proposition feel fair and conscience, while real, tends to be weakest at scale.

For leaders, this clarifies what will and will not work when trying to shift behaviour. Programmes that assume values alone will carry adoption are unlikely to scale. Successful propositions make the financial value explicit, remove complexity and reinforce autonomy.

This is also where energy demand flexibility becomes central. If the future power system has good times and bad times to use electricity, then consumer products, tariffs and digital engagement must translate system needs into something households can act on without becoming energy experts.

Why cheap renewables still feel expensive and why market design matters

The panel also confronted a widely felt disconnect, renewables are often described as cheap, but bills remain high. Stark explained this as a shift from a fuel cost world to a capital cost world.

In the legacy system, consumers mostly paid for the commodity being burned. In the new system, the “fuel” is effectively free, but the capital investment required to build generation, networks, storage and other infrastructure is large and much of it is recovered over time through bills.

He outlined two levers available to government, spread costs over longer asset lifetimes and shift some costs from bill payers to tax payers, citing home energy efficiency support as an example.

He also focused on wholesale market dynamics, where gas often sets the marginal price, even when cheaper renewables are on the system. Reducing the hours where gas sets the price becomes a consumer strategy as much as a climate strategy. It depends on more clean generation, more flexibility and more storage.

Practical application, how to turn ambition into decisions

The strongest thread running through the panel was that ambition only becomes bankable when it is translated into choices organisations can make now. That means being explicit about dependencies, understanding where the system is likely to tighten and building propositions that work for customers who do not have time to decode policy.

Start with the questions. If your plan assumes timely grid access or low marginal prices, stress test those assumptions. If your customer offer relies on behavioural change, interrogate what makes it feel worth doing in everyday life.

A few prompts can help sharpen that thinking.

Where does our plan assume grid capacity will be available and what is our mitigation if connection timelines move
Which parts of our operating model rely on low electricity prices and how sensitive are we to periods where gas still sets the price
What is our customer proposition for flexibility, what do people get, what do they have to do and what makes it feel worth it

Next, watch for signals that the system is changing in practice, not only in narrative. Queue reform that shifts real connection dates, consumer propositions that move beyond pilots and supply chain constraints that show up in lead times are all indicators that strategy needs to move with delivery reality.

Evidence that grid connection queue reform is changing real project timelines, not only policy language
Movement from pilot schemes to scaled consumer propositions that use smart meter data for action, not reporting
Supply chain constraints becoming the limiting factor, particularly where domestic capability is expected to grow quickly

Finally, avoid common traps. The panel’s logic implies that late engagement, vague consumer value and assumptions about bill impacts will all undermine momentum.

Treating community engagement as a late stage communications task rather than part of delivery planning
Designing consumer programmes around “green” messaging rather than price, simplicity and control
Assuming that falling average generation costs automatically translate into lower bills without addressing market pricing mechanics

What good looks like is a joined up approach across delivery, markets and customers. Infrastructure plans remove bottlenecks, market design reduces the role of gas in price setting. Consumer products make energy demand flexibility easy and worthwhile. When those layers move together, Clean Power 2030 has a credible route to public value.

Key takeaways

The session’s message was that delivery is now the strategy. Clean Power 2030 is being treated as a mission to remove delay, because delay is what drives cost and erodes confidence. Grid connection queue reform sits at the centre of that effort, shaping which projects become real and when.

Planning and consenting remain the pace setters, with community consent positioned as a delivery constraint rather than an optional add on. On the demand side, the consumer story must be built on affordability, simplicity and control**. E**nergy demand flexibility will only scale when it is delivered through products and tariffs that feel genuinely useful.

Clean Power 2030 is being run as a mission to remove delay and delay is the cost driver.
Grid connection queue reform is a market shaping intervention, it determines what gets built and when.
Planning and consenting are the pace setters, community consent is a delivery constraint, not an optional add on.
For households, affordability comes first, adoption will follow value, convenience and control.
Energy demand flexibility needs real consumer products, not only policy intent.

Quote of the session

“Marathon starts with a sprint.”

Chris Stark, Head of Mission Control, Clean Power 2030

Final thoughts

The panel’s underlying message was consistent, the UK’s energy ambition will succeed or fail on delivery discipline and consumer outcomes, not on targets alone.

Clean Power 2030 is an attempt to compress learning, remove structural blockers and build confidence in a system that will need to scale rapidly after 2030. The prize is not only decarbonisation, it is cheaper, more secure electricity that enables investment, jobs and competitiveness.

Speakers

Carl Trowell, President, UK Strategic Infrastructure, National Grid. Carl has held senior leadership roles across the energy services sector, including CEO positions and has over twenty five years of experience in engineering, services and complex project delivery.
Angus McCarey, CEO, Uswitch. Angus leads Uswitch’s evolution from an energy switching service into a platform for mass market behaviour change, combining digital products, behavioural insight and market incentives.
Chris Stark, Head of Mission Control, Clean Power 2030. Chris leads the government’s Clean Power 2030 Mission Control, focused on accelerating delivery of cheaper, homegrown clean power and reducing exposure to fossil fuel volatility.