© Jessica Davies/DCT Media 
Octopus boss Greg Jackson has dismissed concerns raised by offshore wind developers that zonal pricing could jeopardise investment in offshore wind farms, especially in the north.
A proponent of rolling out regional power prices across the UK, he argues that any potential investment lost in new wind projects will be recouped from savings on wind curtailment.
On the same day that Jackson spoke to Energy Voice on the sidelines of the Innovation Zero conference, the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce wrote to prime minister Keir Starmer warning that proposed reforms to the grid jeopardise major offshore wind projects in Scotland.
The commerce chamber said introducing zonal power pricing risks investment being cancelled or put on hold in the north and north-east.
“More than once, I’ve been called in when very large energy users have been threatening to either leave the UK or to site their new infrastructure outside the UK because of high energy prices,” Jackson said in response, in an exclusive interview at the event in Kensington Olympia.
“If you can produce energy cheaply, which, by the way, the offshore producers can do… we should be out there finding the demand and bringing it, attracting new investment to grow these industries.”
‘Immediate benefits’
© Jessica Davies/DCT MediaJackson said zonal pricing produces “immediate benefits” because it will create a system that is “more efficient” – and that future benefits will be produced by investing in the “right infrastructure in the right places”.
Jackson argued that zonal pricing would also reduce the amount the UK pays on wind curtailment.
“It would reduce that,” he said. “And it would get cheap electricity to people, politicians and business people.
“We can’t keep telling the public that renewables are cheap and then putting their bills up, at some point that system breaks. We’ve seen what happens – we’ve seen in America what happens when it breaks.”
He said the biggest threat to investment is if the system is not reformed in an “orderly way”, warning that political uncertainty in the US has led investment in renewables to fall off a cliff.
Jackson also said that zonal pricing will be good for battery energy storage, and that this will benefit wind developers. If the marginal price of power, which is currently set by gas, shifts to energy storage as excess renewable power is stored and dispatched during times of low supply, it could amplify the market for batteries.
“If you can produce energy cheaply – which, by the way, the offshore producers can do all right – we should be out there finding the demand and bringing it, attracting new investment to grow these industries,” said Jackson.
“There are huge opportunities around the UK. Obviously we’re doing great, so in Scotland… I look, for example, at what could be done in the Celtic Sea – the opportunity again to foster new industries with access to cheap clean energy.
“But also, we can build other things. I was speaking to a very large developer that said: ‘Look, we want zonal pricing because it will make batteries more efficient. We’ll be able to put batteries in more places; invest in more batteries.’
And so I think, as the world changes, successful businesses are those that lead the change, adapt to it and deliver value for customers.”
