Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the transition to renewable heating systems will have on (a) UK grid capacity and (b) the North West’s grid capacity.

To achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, we will need to decarbonise virtually all heat in buildings. Government analysis indicates that heat pumps are likely to play an important role in this transition, which is why my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister announced our ambition to reach 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028. In combination with an increase in electric vehicle deployment, this is likely to increase demand for electricity.

Ensuring the adequacy of the electricity network is the responsibility of electricity network companies, and they are incentivised to do so through the regulatory framework set out by Ofgem, the independent regulator. Electricity distribution network operators (DNOs) submitted their draft business plans for the next price control (RIIO ED2), which will run from 2023-28, on 1 July. Final draft business plans submissions are expected to be made by DNOs in December of this year. As part of this, DNOs, including Electricity North West who are the licensed operator for the distribution network in the North West, will include forecasts for the uptake of renewable heating systems and how they plan to ready the network for these technologies.

A new Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan, developed jointly by BEIS and Ofgem, will be published shortly. The plan will set out how deploying low carbon technologies, including heat pumps, in a smart and flexible way can reduce the requirement for large increases in generation capacity and support the balancing of the electricity system. This approach benefits all electricity system users by reducing overall system costs and carbon emissions, while also supporting system stability.