A new report co-authored by Laura Sandys has called for a bonfire of the traditional “obsessions” of energy policy makers and regulators in order to enable a radically new regulatory model for the future. The report, Reshaping Regulation, claims that an undue focus on the problem of the energy “trilemma” as well as fuel poverty and security of supply have “distorted” policy making and regulation “for too long”. To realise a low carbon energy future characterised by flexible decentralised generation, demand side participation and innovative smart home services, the report insists a new policy and regulatory model is needed. It says that current approaches to adapting regulation in response to significant system changes are too “incremental” and are “constrained by incumbent thinking”. As such, the report’s authors say the energy system is being kept in a state of “transition” and is not moving fast enough towards an end destination. To help achieve a fresh regulatory approach, the report calls for a review “of all bodies currently regulating the energy sector with a clear ambition to rationalise, simplify and identify any ‘gaming’ of the complexity.” It also says that the “misplaced responsibility given to the energy sector” to act against fuel poverty “should be removed”. “Fuel poverty is not an energy problem, but either one of real poverty or of bad housing, and as a result should sit clearly within a different set of policy areas and departments,” reads the report.
Edie 19th Oct 2017 read more »
