A programmatic approach can power the decarbonisation of our energy mix

The UK’s energy mix has been evolving for many years, but with net zero goals becoming increasingly ambitious and the decarbonisation agenda’s heightened focus, the pace of change is really starting to accelerate.  

The UK government recently announced that from 1st October 2024 coal will no longer be used to generate electricity. This is a year earlier than expected, but an astonishing 270 years after it was harnessed to power our industrialisation.  A 10-point plan putting offshore wind, nuclear and hydrogen at the heart of our future energy industry, announced by the Prime Minister last year, is now targeting a Green Industrial Revolution.  

The scope and scale of the climate challenge and what a green revolution will need to deliver is now clearer than ever. This month’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) laid out what the impact of our failure to act will be, while the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) net zero roadmap has detailed 400 technology milestones to reach net zero by 2050.  

 A lot of hope rests on the outcomes of COP26, taking place in Glasgow in a few months’ time and the UK has made “Energy Transition” as one of its top five priorities for the Summit.

How feasible is decarbonisation?

It’s fair to say that the message is getting through. Everybody is aware that we need to decarbonise the way we generate, transmit, and use power. The challenge is how we get there. A recent report by McKinsey stated that to get to “80-90% decarbonisation is generally technically feasible, but will be more expensive, more complicated and require more market-specific action”.  

With an urgency on the UK to pursue a cleaner energy transition and focus on the 10-point plan to make the energy mix a reality, the power sector needs to consider what changes it can make to reinvent the project-delivery model. 

 Effective and efficient programme delivery  

Over the past two decades we have seen the energy industry slash the cost and time of delivery by incremental changes in the way they operate. The effect of this action can be seen clearly most clearly in the falling auction prices for offshore wind. However, the future pace of project development will be many times greater than that of the recent past, calling for transformational change in the set-up and delivery of projects and a greater openness to collaboration and sharing, with factors including: 

 1.                  Greater focus on the integrated project delivery model

 Adopting a new approach to procure services for delivery of construction projects requires significant changes in areas such as governance, procurement, and collaboration.

 2.                  Developing future capability  

The integrated project delivery model must be properly set up with a clear strategy and purpose, but it is crucial that Owners consider the longer-term enablers required to predict the future while remaining agile in the process and set up for success with a skilled, empowered, and integrated workforce, repetitive project delivery and data driven approach.

  3.                  Leveraging wider experience   

By driving innovation and improving productivity across major projects and programmes, we accelerate performance and realise essential change. Our industry is embracing collaboration more than ever before.  As sector should we consider utilising best practice approaches such at the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) Routemap and Project 13?

So, what’s next? 

With COP26 just around the corner we can be certain that the pressure to decarbonise our energy mix is only going to grow. We also know that investment is coming. The new UK Infrastructure Bank, which the Chancellor Rishi Sunak opened back in June, has also been tasked with accelerating investment into ambitious infrastructure projects, with an initial £12 billion of capital to deploy including in the clean energy space.  

The time is now to act and get to grips with the huge challenge of overhauling our energy mix, but we need to get this programme set up right from the start if we want to make our greener future a reality.