Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent estimate her Department has made of the cost of decarbonising the electricity grid by (a) 2030 and (b) 2050.

The Department published a paper looking at the power sector in 2050 and the impact of decarbonisation on annual system costs incurred in the same year^[1]. The paper identifies a range of illustrative low-cost, low-carbon electricity generation mixes that are consistent with meeting Net Zero by 2050. Total annual system costs for these mixes range from £66 to £82 billion in 2022 prices. No similar analysis was performed for 2030.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modelling-2050-electricity-system-analysis

[1] Modelling 2050 – electricity system analysis - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)