In an exclusive interview with Energy Voice, Hitachi Energy country managing director for UK and Ireland, Laura Fleming, explains how the UK must aim to transition – not switch – away from oil and gas, and the immediate priorities to achieve Labour’s clean power vision.
In the UK, Hitachi Energy is heavily focused on the wind sector and enabling the flow of electricity from wind farms to locations where it can find end users. Hitachi provides the connection for Dogger Bank Wind Farm and the Shetland Grid, among others.
Energy Voice: From your previous experience working on offshore interconnector projects, what are the biggest priorities and opportunities for the UK right now?
Laura Fleming: The main priority for the UK right now is to ensure that each GW of renewable energy is matched by investment in the grid. Growth in grid capacity is the key to unlocking growth in renewables. Grid capacity must move in lockstep with the growth of renewables.
Rapid investment in a more sustainable, flexible and secure energy system is vital to the UK achieving clean power by 2030, kickstarting economic growth and achieving cheaper power. At Hitachi Energy, we are playing our part by working with the government, our customers and partners to deliver electricity networks that will enable the UK to become a clean energy superpower.
Investment in grid capacity will allow the UK to capture the enormous growth opportunity from a net-zero grid. To deliver this, the priority should be on delivering the Transmission Acceleration Action Plan and the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan with rapid unblocking of grid connections that risk holding back renewable energy projects.
As I mentioned, the UK has the opportunity to capture the enormous growth opportunity from the net-zero grid. To do this, we need incentives to support and attract supply chain investments. In line with this is a need for the right people with the right skills to take up clean energy jobs across the UK.
Interconnection specifically is key to ensuring the UK’s energy security and affordable electricity bills for consumers. Offshore interconnectors present a huge opportunity to enhance the UK’s energy security, as they can provide a stable and diverse flow of electricity from neighboring countries.
Following the National Energy System Operator’s plans, the UK must upgrade grid capacity and ensure regulatory frameworks are robust to facilitate smooth integration.
Hitachi is convinced that the future is electrification – what is your view on the bottlenecks in the UK; the hurdles to making this a reality?
Electrification is the cornerstone of the UK’s future energy strategy. We know that we need to have quadrupled our capacity by 2050 and electricity is key to all areas of our lives: transport, e-mobility, data, heating. Most of the things we use are powered by electricity – the phone in our pockets or the TV in our living rooms.
As the world marches towards electrification, we need the infrastructure to make this possible. It is critical that we have a grid fit for the future that is scaled up and smarter to handle the more variable nature of renewable energy. Beyond unblocking grid connections, we can leap hurdles with a focus on certainty, skills and supply chains.
Certainty is vital. Providing long-term certainty would help to enable the supply chain to commit to UK projects. In the competitive global market, it’s important that the global supply chain is attracted to UK projects.
We can also improve certainty by moving towards a more programmatic approach to projects. We can do this by working with governments, regulators and industry to create long-term visibility of projects – standardising solutions to allow suppliers to work proactively, and by making procurement easier using long-term partnership agreements over a programme of projects.
We also need to ensure we have enough people to deliver critical energy infrastructure. If we get this right, we could create thousands of jobs in new clean sectors all over the UK. There would be new roles in generation, transmission, distribution, storage, flexibility and everything in between. Clearly, grid limitations are a huge bottleneck to achieving growth.
The UK needs to overcome delays in permitting and investment in grid upgrades, which are vital to handle the increased demand from electrification. Additionally, there is a need for continued innovation in energy storage and smart grid technologies to ensure the reliability of supply.
Globally, we are seeing supply chain pressures when it comes to delivering critical energy infrastructure.
Similarly, it’s been interesting to observe how sentiment around UK energy has shifted over the last six months, particularly in relation to the role of the North Sea. What is your view on the best way to achieve a just, achievable ‘transition’ in the UK – as opposed to a ‘switch’?
The key to a just and achievable transition lies in a balanced, phased approach. A ‘switch’ would be too abrupt and could undermine energy security and economic stability. The UK should focus on integrating renewables while progressively reducing its reliance on fossil fuels, ensuring that jobs in the oil and gas sector transition into renewables.
To do this we need to engage with the people, communities, consumers and attract people who can benefit from the next energy opportunity. This isn’t just a matter of energy security, it’s about climate change. We have the chance to redefine the world we want to be in for all our futures and everyone can play a role in helping to achieve this.
The North Sea will play a critical role in this transition. There needs to be a clear pathway for workers and communities to transition into these new opportunities, backed by targeted training programmes.
Further to this point, we hear repeatedly that the oil and gas and renewables supply chains are intrinsically linked, meaning you cannot have a viable renewables sector without hydrocarbons (yet)…
Indeed, the oil and gas supply chains are still deeply intertwined with renewables, particularly in areas such as offshore wind where the expertise in subsea engineering, logistics and heavy lifting that oil and gas companies have developed is essential.
The oil and gas industry has been very successful and the renewables industry can still learn a lot about how to develop from an emerging industry to a mature industry – this goes for matters related to engineering, but also to finance and investment.
For the renewables sector to scale, continued collaboration with the oil and gas sector is necessary. The transition doesn’t mean an immediate severing of ties with hydrocarbons; instead, it’s about evolving and aligning both sectors towards shared decarbonisation goals.
There is much we can learn from the oil and gas industry, and we have seen the industries overlap with offshore wind. The skills are similar, and not just limited to this industry, but also others such as automotive and aerospace, where electrical engineers can bring solutions to support the digitalisation of the industry.
The UK can leverage its existing oil and gas expertise and infrastructure to accelerate the deployment of renewables, while ensuring energy security during the transition.
On the key issue of grid balancing – what are the practical challenges to realising Labour’s clean energy mission?
We know that grid balancing and ensuring grid capacity is central to achieving clean power by 2030. The intermittency of renewable energy sources like wind and solar means the grid must be flexible enough to cope with supply fluctuations. The key issues include the need for more grid storage solutions, demand-side management and interconnectors to enable cross-border energy sharing.
There’s also the matter of upgrading transmission infrastructure and technologies such as advanced power electronics and grid-forming technologies to help provide inertia and system resilience.
The government’s clean energy mission would require significant investment in these areas, as well as rapid deployment of technologies such as large-scale batteries, flexible generation and grid-scale hydrogen storage.
As I have mentioned, we need a focus on supply chains, certainty and access to a skilled workforce to enable the grid to match government ambitions. We also appreciate the need to expedite critical energy infrastructure and ensure community support for new projects. Growing the local energy economy is central to this.
Transferability of skills is key to the current energy paradigm – does the UK have what it takes to deliver the workforce of the future?
The UK has a strong base of engineering and technical skills, but the transition to a low-carbon economy demands rapid upskilling and reskilling of the workforce. We need to focus on creating clear career pathways into the renewables sector, particularly in areas like grid infrastructure, offshore wind, hydrogen and transport.
At Hitachi Energy UK, we are planning to increase our workforce to over 1,000 employees over the next couple of years – up from over 650 at the moment. Universities, vocational schools and industry partnerships must align to deliver the workforce of the future, ensuring that people transitioning from traditional energy sectors like oil and gas have the necessary skills.
Government policies should also support this transition, incentivising both individuals and companies to invest in training and development.
What is your position on the future of energy in terms of centralised, decreasingly fossil fuel-powered energy versus distributed power solutions?
The future of energy will likely be a hybrid model, combining centralised and distributed energy systems. Centralised, large-scale renewables like offshore wind will continue to play a key role, particularly in meeting base-load demand. This is what is driving the Clean Power 2030 initiatives and will allow us to get to a net-zero electricity grid by 2030.
However, after 2030 we also expect that our demand for electricity will significantly increase as we further decarbonise what we do on a day to day in terms of transport, industry, shipping and heating – to name a few.
To be able to manage all these complex and diverse flows between demand and supply, I expect that we will see a growth in distributed energy solutions such as rooftop solar, community energy schemes, and local energy storage becoming increasingly important to provide flexibility and resilience to the grid.
A key challenge will be integrating these decentralised sources into a cohesive, reliable system, supported by smart grid technologies, real-time monitoring and flexible storage solutions.
The UK will need to invest in both, finding the right balance between centralised power plants and distributed solutions.
