“If we could have one thing out of the industrial strategy it would be a commitment to examine the energy system from the user’s end and then to create a policy framework for successfully facilitating investment,” said Tim Rotheray, chief executive of the Association for Decentralised Energy.
He added that the government’s own analysis showed that Britain’s industrial efficiency is “way off” what is cost effective.
His comments to Utility Week follow government’s publication of a green paper on its new industrial strategy. A central strand within this is the need to drive down energy costs for UK busiensses in order to aid industrial competitiveness. It promised to deliver a “long-term road map to minimise business energy costs” later this year
Rotheray said that establishing an energy policy framework which can support further investment in on-site generation, demand management and energy efficiency measures would be “transformative” for both businesses and the UK energy system as a whole.
He said within the energy industry most of the discussion around the new industrial strategy has focused on developing the supply the chain within the UK, something which is of little relevance to the many businesses outside the sector which are nevethreless concerned about energy. “Actually, for businesses energy is basically a cost. That is how they see it.
“The big untapped opportunity in the energy system is maximising the value that exists at the user end, which is on-site generation, on-site demand management and on-site demand reduction.”
Rotheray said businesses either struggle to get value from such investments or don’t bother with them at all: “The administrative burden is so high that it’s not worth doing.”
You can read Utility Week’s analysis of the implications of the modern industrial strategy here.