Britain’s electricity system will be capable of being powered solely by zero carbon sources of power by 2025 for periods at a time, National Grid ESO has said.
Ahead of the COP26 climate summit in November, the operator has released new analysis that shows the system will be capable of running free of fossil fuels in four years. This will be a key milestone for a zero carbon electricity system by 2035, the target laid out in the sixth carbon budget.
Currently, National Grid ESO’s control room does still need to draw on fossil fuels to deliver system reliability, managing properties such as voltage and frequency. This was particularly evident at the beginning of 2021, when cold weather and low winds led to the grid relying more heavily on gas and coal than usual, and power prices in the day ahead market and the Balancing Mechanism skyrocketing.
Read more: Current News
