Sir David King, Special Representative for Climate Change, Foreign and Commonwealth Office 

Richard Howard, Head of Environment and Energy, Policy Exchange

Jorge Pikunic, Managing Director – Distributed Energy and Power, Centrica

Nicola Shaw, Executive Director, National Grid

Lucy Symons, Director of Public Policy, Open Energi
The electricity system in Great Britain is undergoing a radical transformation, with a trend towards decarbonisation, decentralisation, and digitalisation. There has been a ten-fold growth in the amount of renewables capacity since 2000, whilst at the same time the fleet of conventional power stations is in decline. This is creating significant challenges for the management and operation of the power system – to ensure there is sufficient capacity and flexibility to keep the lights on, and balance demand and supply.

Power 2.0 argues that in order to decarbonise the power system and accommodate renewable energy, we will need to create a system which is smarter and more flexible. However, the report identifies that the current policy, regulatory and fiscal regime is creating barriers for clean technologies such as demand response and storage, whilst encouraging a proliferation of polluting forms of generation such as diesel engines.

The report describes how to remove these distortions and ‘level the playing field’ between technologies. It also makes the case for a longer-term reform of the electricity market to value and encourage flexibility, learning lessons from other markets.

We hope you will join us for what will be a stimulating and timely debate.

This event will be oversubscribed. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

To apply for a place please email events@policyexchange.org.uk