The Clean Power Plan 2030 is an ambitious initiative by the UK government aimed at achieving clean power by 2030. It was officially announced in December 2024 and outlines significant reforms to the energy system, including increasing the share of low-carbon electricity generation and improving the planning process for renewable energy projects.

In this short video, Phil Kent, CEO at Gravis, discusses the plan, looking at the reforms and progress that have been made so far, and what still needs to be achieved over the next five years.

A full transcript is below.

The Clean Power 2030 plan is focused on delivering a low carbon electricity grid in the UK by 2030. And what that practically means is the carbon intensity of the grid - so the level of carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity that's generated - is targeted to reduce from 171 grammes per kilowatt hour in 2023 through to 50 grammes per kilowatt hour in 2030.

That will be achieved by a fairly fundamental change to our electricity grid in the system, as well as how electricity is generated, [with] a real shift to both renewables, but also abated gas generation.

To dive into it in a bit more detail, the total investment requirement that has been pointed to as part of these plans is around £40 billion a year between 2025 and 2030, across the reform of the grid. And I think the key reform that we've seen there is a reform in grid connections, and the process for securing grid connections, which have been moved from a first come, first serve-type model, where if you're at the top of that list, you're first to get an offer, to an assessment of whether projects are ready to be connected, whether they've got the financial backing, the planning consents, the other consents the projects might need, as well as whether they're needed.

And what that means is whether they're located in a part of the country where new generation capacity is positive from a grid perspective, so perhaps nearer to where demand is located rather than perhaps generation increasingly isolated from demand and relying on grid reinforcement to transport power. So grid reform has been a key area at National Grid, or the electricity system operator, which now has published some supporting evidence that feeds into the Clean Power 2030 plan.

The other area is how we generate our electricity, and that's where I think there's also a fairly fundamental change in moving from the generation we have today to a generation that's much more focused on renewables. So offshore wind will increase to around 50 gigawatts under the government's targets, onshore wind to around 30, solar to around 45 gigawatts, but also a significant growth in battery storage. I think 27 gigawatts of battery storage is quoted in the Clean Power 2030 plan, as well as 46 gigawatts of long-duration energy storage. So that's in addition to batteries which tend to respond in relatively short periods to, say, pump hydro, which can provide storage for much longer duration.

There's also a recognition as part of that plan that we can't get rid of gas. The plan points to around 35 gigawatts of unabated gas, effectively sitting there in reserve for when the wind's not blowing and the sun's not shining to ensure we maintain electricity generation across the grid in line with demand. So that's a fairly significant excess capacity and much more than we have in the current grid today.

So the shape of our grid will change, and I would argue the shape of the market mechanisms that are going to be necessary to make that happen also need to change. We've already seen some reform to the contract for difference model. That's the principle model the government used to support revenues for renewable projects. We've recently extended the life of that from 15 to 20 years. We're expecting the results of the next round later this year. That's going to be a bigger round than we've ever seen before, and indeed needs to be, and it needs to be well-subscribed if this plan is going to remain at all credible.

Electricity market reform is the other big aspect of this. The review of electricity market arrangements (REMA) has been going on for some time now.

The government came out recently confirming that there wouldn't be the introduction of zonal location pricing, which I think was generally received fairly positively by the industry. And I think from investors, it helps give certainty over - certainly for historic projects - what the market mechanisms will look like moving forward.

REMA hasn't ended. We still think there will be some market reform focused on delivery of the Clean Power Plan and the wider Net Zero by 2050 target. So we'll wait to see what comes out of that. But perhaps the changes are likely to be less dramatic than perhaps we originally thought they might be.

Overall, we think the investment requirement and the direction of travel here is a really positive one for investors. The combination of long-term revenue support mechanisms and significant infrastructure being built, as well as the enabling factors for that - so planning reform and grid reform to support projects getting through the early stage of that process - is absolutely critical.

I would also make the point that 2030 is not very far away, and there's a huge amount to do in a relatively short space of time. And I think, increasingly, it's looking like the 2030 target is very unlikely, in my personal view, to be met.

But that shouldn't, I think, take away from the direction of travel and the ambition here, which remains clear. And I think if we get anywhere near the levels that we're thinking about, it'll be an extremely positive thing from an investment perspective, but also from the country's path to net zero in 2050 in addressing climate change.

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