Heat pumps were the hot topic at Utility Week Live 2023. Megan Hulme, Policy and Insight Analyst, discusses the key takeaways and the challenges faced by the electricity market on climate resilience and decarbonisation.
Utility Week Live is an annual opportunity to bring together industry experts in the utilities field. Over 150 speakers were involved in various panels and talks. The topics that were covered included ‘Innovation’, ‘Challenges’ and ‘Keynotes’, with a focus on decarbonisation and sustainability. It was fantastic to hear from experts and government on the challenges in meeting net zero targets, and the available solutions.
One of the key takeaways from this year’s event was the focus on heat pumps as the ‘sole’ solution for homes. This is not to say there were no other technologies displayed, such as bi-directional electric vehicle chargers or energy efficiency solutions, but there was a clear heat pump dominance in the conversations.
Why were heat pumps the Utility Week Live hot topic?
The heat pump focus may be due to the current policy targets from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). It’s clear that they will aid in the decarbonisation of buildings, which currently account for over a third of UK carbon emissions. DESNZ are trying to accelerate the uptake through a range of policy mechanisms to meet 2050 net zero targets:
- 600,000 annual heat pump installations by 2028, first set out in the ten point plan for a green industrial revolution.
- £6.6 billion in public investment from 2021-2025. This includes schemes such as the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), which has recently been extended to 2028. The Government has committed an additional £6 billion investment from 2025-2028.
- Investments in skills and training, such as the £5 million Heat Training Grant and the Home Decarbonisation Skills Training Competition.
- Phase out of fossil fuel heating systems in new buildings (Future Homes Standard in 2025), and on and off the gas grid.
- The Clean Heat Market Mechanism.
- Increasing innovation and investment through the Heat Pump Ready Programme and the Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition.
Heat pumps will play a key role in the decarbonisation of the UK’s building stock. But despite the Government’s policies, more will still need to be done to achieve their ambitious goals within the industry. This became apparent during a panel discussion during the event provided a tense debate between a government representative and an industry expert. Scrutiny of the current progress of the BUS, resulting in slower heat pump uptake, was the main source of friction during this panel.
The future of energy infrastructure
I had the opportunity to become involved in a peer-to-peer discussion session during Utility Week Live. The focus was on the challenges faced by the electricity market on climate resilience and decarbonisation. Conversations centred around the physical strength required by grid structures, such as preparing for extreme weather events. It also provided the opportunity to hear more about the importance of grid sustainability through mechanisms such as time-of use tariffs and grid smoothing. There is an obvious bridge between the decarbonisation of the electricity grid and the electrification of heating systems through solutions such as heat pumps.
Utility Week Live highlighted two things: the importance for cross industry collaboration to achieve national targets and a lack of technology agnosticism within current government policies to achieve decarbonisation goals. Evident at the event, the utilities industry is striving to achieve goals set by the Government and I look forward to seeing how technological innovations develop ahead of Utility Week Live 2024.