A report commissioned by RenewableUK is urging the UK government to treat energy security as a core element of national security and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy.
The study by Public First in collaboration with the Royal United Services Institute warned that the UK remains exposed to global gas price shocks because of reliance on internationally traded fossil fuels.
The authors said that although the UK energy system is resilient, spikes in fossil fuel costs can rapidly increase household bills, public spending and fiscal uncertainty.
The findings draw on a wargame exercise involving experts from emergency planning bodies, energy system operators, government departments, oil and gas companies and renewable energy developers.
The report concluded that a power system based on renewables supported by storage and flexibility would be more resilient to physical disruption than a fossil fuel-based system.
Researchers said wind and solar generation are geographically distributed, reducing the number of centralised assets that could be targeted in the event of infrastructure disruption.
“Security experts are increasingly clear that the best way to protect the UK’s economy and national security is to make the most of our own home-grown energy,” said Tara Singh, chief executive of RenewableUK.
“Renewables are central to that because they reduce exposure to global shocks, help keep bills stable and make the system harder to disrupt, alongside the continued role of the North Sea and gas storage.”
“In this contested and turbulent geopolitical environment, the UK needs to change the way it thinks about its energy systems and markets,” said Dan Marks, research fellow on energy security at the Royal United Services Institute.
“The country must focus intensively on moving from a high cost system with passive consumers and that is overly vulnerable to international oil and gas markets to a system that is secure, low cost, low emissions and embedded in a resilient society.”