Last year, Britain paid around £1.5 billion to waste its own clean electricity. On current trends that bill could reach £8 billion a year by 2030. Britain is building clean power faster than it can use it and households are paying for the difference.
As Andy Burnham sets out his priorities for government, the UK's clean energy sector will be watching closely for the direction he takes on energy policy. He has made clear that tackling the cost of living and reducing the burden of high energy bills will sit at the very top of his agenda; rightly so, given the ongoing pressures faced by households.
Improving household living standards cannot happen without a serious plan for energy. Delivering that agenda will require putting British innovation and technology at the heart of reshaping the energy system, strengthening the UK's energy security in the process.
These priorities matter not just as a matter of policy. Families are still feeling the aftershocks of a prolonged energy price crisis. Whilst the UK cannot control global energy markets, it can reduce its exposure to them by building a system that relies less on imported fossil fuels and makes better use of the clean power we can generate at home.
But delivering on that ambition requires recognising a shift that is often overlooked. Britain is not only decarbonising electricity supply, but also rapidly electrifying demand. As households adopt electric low-carbon heating such as heat pumps, as well as electric vehicles, electricity consumption will rise significantly, even as generation becomes cleaner.
The challenge is no longer simply generating enough clean electricity but ensuring it is used more intelligently.
The Government's Clean Power 2030 mission, Warm Homes Plan and wider electrification strategy are important steps. Expanding renewable generation, improving home energy efficiency and rolling out low-carbon heating are all essential if Britain is to cut emissions while keeping costs under control.
However, there is a growing gap in the policy debate. Alongside investment in generation and grid infrastructure, there must be a far greater focus on demand-side flexibility: the ability to shift electricity use to periods when energy is cheaper, cleaner and less constrained.
Without it, electrification risks replacing one constraint with another, moving from dependence on fossil fuels to an electricity system defined by expensive peaks in demand that ultimately drive up costs for consumers and businesses alike.
This is especially true for heat. As electric heating becomes more widespread, the issue of when energy is used will matter as much as how much is used. Winter peak demand is likely to rise sharply, placing new pressure on local networks and the wider system.
Grid flexibility is therefore not an optional extra. It will determine whether the benefits of the clean energy transition are reflected in household bills as well as national carbon targets.
By shifting demand away from peak periods and aligning consumption with times of abundant renewable generation, flexibility can reduce system costs, ease pressure on infrastructure, make better use of clean electricity that might otherwise be wasted, and reduce the need for costly investment in new network capacity.
A key part of this solution will be intelligent thermal storage. As a British pioneer in smart hot water and heat battery technology, Mixergy has helped demonstrate how UK innovation can support a more flexible energy system.
By heating only the water a household actually needs, a smart cylinder such as Mixergy's cuts hot water energy use by up to 40 per cent; and because it can be charged remotely in the windows when wind is abundant and prices are low or even negative — it turns electricity that would otherwise be paid to switch off into effectively free hot water in the home. Mixergy operates hundreds of domestic tanks as a live grid-balancing resource, and a single social-housing deployment with Birmingham City Council — more than a thousand smart cylinders — has delivered over £286,000 in combined hot water bill savings for their tenants, and removed around 170 tonnes of carbon. There are 10 million cylinders installed across Britain, representing significant untapped potential.
Flexibility also strengthens energy security. A system that balances demand more effectively is less exposed to global price volatility, less reliant on high-cost peaking generation, and more resilient during disruption. It also supports the Government's ambition to reduce fuel poverty by helping ensure low-carbon heating is affordable in practice, not just in principle.
These outcomes – lower bills, stronger energy security, reduced emissions and lower fuel poverty – are often treated as competing priorities. In reality, they reinforce each other. But only if the energy system is designed to optimise demand as well as supply.
As Britain moves towards Clean Power 2030, this must be reflected in policy. Generation and grid expansion are essential, but not sufficient on their own. Demand-side flexibility and storage should sit alongside them as core pillars of the energy system.
For a new Government focused on growth, delivering better value for consumers and making Britain's infrastructure work harder, prioritising grid flexibility would be one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to translate ambition into delivery. It presents an opportunity to unlock greater value from the clean energy system we are already building, while ensuring households see the benefits of lower bills and a more resilient energy system.
The next phase of the transition will not be defined only by how much renewable energy we build, but by whether we can turn it into lower bills, stronger energy security and tangible improvements in people's lives.
That is how the success of Labour's clean energy mission will ultimately be judged. And it is why grid flexibility should be one of the expected Burnham Government's earliest energy priorities, moving from the margins of the debate to its very centre.
Pete Armstrong is founder and CEO of Mixergy. He writes in a personal capacity.
