Meeting report
Responsive Research Topic Consultation – Summary
Jun 2025
The UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) held its Annual Assembly last week at the University of Warwick – its first in the new 2024–2029 Phase. Bringing together researchers and stakeholders from across the energy space, the event focused on sharing insights, tackling emerging challenges, and fostering collaboration in an increasingly complex policy environment.
UKERC Director Rob Gross opened proceedings with an overview of the centre’s refreshed thematic structure. Emphasising the importance of collaboration both within and beyond UKERC, he reflected on the evolving political context and UKERC’s continued influence on energy policy. While the past year has seen some progress under the government’s Clean Power Mission, Rob noted ongoing inertia in key areas – and a shifting window of discourse that is redefining what is politically feasible in climate and energy debates.
Long Zhou discusses our research on Affordability, Justice and Economic Impacts
The first session featured short presentations from researchers across UKERC’s themes, offering insights into the breadth of work underway.
Graeme Hawker likened the disruption of HS2 to the transformative changes needed in electricity infrastructure, calling it “the biggest programme of transmission development in two generations.” Wei Gan discussed the technical challenge of balancing energy supply and demand, focusing on electric vehicles and long-duration energy storage.
Natalie Ralph introduced the Geopolitics, Energy Security and Net Zero theme, highlighting projects on state transitions away from fossil fuels, industrial strategy, and the political economy of energy in conflict-prone regions. Finally, Long Zhou addressed affordability and equity, noting that nine million UK households still struggle with energy bills, and explored tariff models from other countries aimed at easing this burden.
Chaired by Jianzhong Wu, the next session asked speakers to identify surprising challenges on the road to 2030.
Susie Elks of E3G focused on energy bills and economic vulnerability to fossil fuel price shocks, stressing the opportunity for bold political action. Matt Howard raised concerns over battery demand, pointing to the UK’s underdeveloped gigafactory capacity despite rising requirements under the zero emissions vehicles mandate.
Furong Li from the Supergen Energy Networks Hub emphasised the need for strategic sequencing in policymaking: “Meeting 2030 requires the right levers being pulled, in the right order, at the right time.” And Keith Bell highlighted delays in network capacity upgrades, warning that current delivery risks undermine system resilience.
E3G’s Susie Elks addresses UKERC’s Annual Assembly
The final session of the day looked further ahead. Richard Rodgers, of the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy, described the region’s ambition for energy self-sufficiency and highlighted the need to disconnect local energy prices from volatile global markets.
Sara Walker argued for sustained investment in energy demand reduction, noting that halving energy demand could reduce system investment needs by up to 40%, while also providing cobenefits such as improved public health. Nick Eyre rounded off the session, reflecting on the likely dominance of electrification by 2030, but warned that decarbonising residual demand – particularly in the built environment – remains a major challenge. He also pointed to tensions between industrial and decarbonisation policy.
Day two opened with Jessica Bays providing an operational update highlighting all the fantastic work the centre does alongside the delivery of the research programme, and a review of Day 1 from Keith Bell, before a session on current and future activities for UKERC 24-29.
Jason Chilvers looked at the upcoming work of the Public Engagement Observatory, and fielded questions on how the observatory has tracked pushback against net zero policies, while Catherine Jones outlined some of the innovations and new practice taking place at the Energy Data Centre. Jamie Speirs highlighted the findings from the recent Responsive Research consultation and the proposed projects to take forward. Rob Gross followed with an overview of a recent zonal pricing project, unpacking the complexities of REMA proposals and the balance between spatial fairness and system efficiency. Mike Colechin talked on the Flexible Bioenergy Project, which is exploring how biofuels could potentially provide system flexibility. Finally, Richard Carmichael outlined the upcoming Whole Systems Missions work, which will deliver cross centre projects on key topics while also engaging external collaborators.
Paul Monks talks to UKERC’s Jess Britton and Rob Gross
The Assembly concluded with a keynote from Paul Monks, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Monks called for faster deployment of existing solutions and warned against technocratic approaches that overlook social and economic dimensions. He stressed the need for mission-led innovation, a more diverse fuel system, and improved resource efficiency, reminding the audience that “the cleanest energy is the energy you don’t produce.” Touching on various topics from hydrogen and synthetic fuels to AI and carbon removal, Monks concluded by urging systems thinkers to avoid both oversimplification and paralysis by complexity.
This year’s Assembly reinforced the scale of the UK’s energy challenge, as well as the collective will to address it. Whether through demand-side solutions, infrastructure transformation, or cross-cutting policy innovation, the message was clear: the road to net zero is complex, but collaboration remains our most powerful weapon.