Ofgem targets “flexible” scenario planning

The new Future Insights programme was announced by Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan yesterday in his opening address at the Low Carbon Networks and Innovation (LCNI) conference in Manchester.

The forward looking series of papers has been developed in collaboration with industry stakeholders and will explore a range of key energy themes with a long term view. The aim is to ensure that regulatory approaches and frameworks remain relevant in the fast moving energy landscape.

Nolan explained that the series will “consider some of the possible issues and opportunities for consumers and regulators from changes in the energy system,” said Nolan.

He added that the series of papers are not designed to identify a “preferred pathway based on a particular technology” or even to establish a “set of assumptions about the future.”

Rather the Future Insights programme is aimed at making Ofgem “more open minded and flexible about the range of scenarios we should prepare for – and about what we don’t know what is also coming down the line.”

Topics which will come under scrutiny in the series include heat and “local energy networks”.

Martin Crouch, senior partner for improving regulation at Ofgem, said that the Future Inisghts series will “put consumers at the heart of the debate around the future energy system as it transforms in the coming decades”. 

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