National Grid Says to Accelerate Uptake of Heat Pumps

Undated photo of a heat pump. (Octopus Energy/Handout via PA)

The UK’s electricity system operator has said that there needs to be greater adoption of heat pumps to reach net zero.

According to its Future Energy Scenarios report released on Tuesday (pdf), National Grid ESO, the UK’s system operator said that current installation rates won’t meet the government’s heat pump target as well as a decision on the role of hydrogen in heating.

The report sets out scenarios to achieve a fully decarbonised electricity system by 2035.

Heat pumps are part of the government’s strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a target of 600,000 installations by 2028.

Heat pumps, which run on electricity, work like a fridge in reverse to extract energy from the air or ground.

“A clear decision on the role of hydrogen in heating should be accelerated and heat pump targets and incentives reviewed accordingly,” wrote National Grid ESO.

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“If heat pump uptake remains off-track in 2026 and hydrogen for heat is not supported, then the task of increasing heat pump uptake will be more difficult and expensive,” it said.

It said that further policy support and incentives are needed to increase uptake rates of heat pumps, in addition to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

National Grid ESO claimed that heat pumps are three times as efficient as gas boilers. However, an expert has previously criticised those claims.

30 Million Homes

The UK has signed into law a policy to achieve net zero by 2050, with the Conservative government setting out a strategy called “Build Back Greener” to decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy.

According to its Heat Pump Investment Roadmap strategy, released in April, reducing the UK’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 means it must decarbonise the heating of over 30 million homes across the UK in a little over 25 years.

The government claims that a heat pump can reduce carbon emissions by up to 70 percent compared with a gas boiler. It plans to phase out the installation of new and replacement natural gas boilers by 2035 at the latest.

The National Grid says it is confident that by 2025, it will have periods of “100 percent zero-carbon electricity, with no fossil fuels used to generate power in Great Britain.”

The report said the extent to which consumers are willing and able to change their behaviour and lifestyle to enable the net zero transition “has a high level of uncertainty.”

One scenario with the highest levels of electrification expected has the highest number of heat pumps—including hybrids— reaching over 23 million installations in homes by 2050.

Overall, it added that it expected “total consumer energy demand to reduce in all scenarios in the medium and long-term.” This, it said, would be down to savings from “energy efficiency measures and electrification.”

It added that “high energy prices, inflation and low economic growth are likely to help suppress energy demand in the industrial and commercial sectors in the short term.”

It also championed the Demand Flexibility Service, a power blackout prevention energy rationing scheme that has been rolled out to tighten the electricity supply, which it said “demonstrated the potential benefits to consumers and the energy system from mass participation in consumer flexibility.”

Not Necessarily Saving Any Money Over a Gas Boiler

Roger Bisby, an English TV presenter who runs the YouTube channel SkillBuilder and is known for his expertise in the British building industry, warned the Daily Mail in 2021 that UK families who fit heat pumps often find “their electricity bills double or treble; the noisy heat pumps drive them to distraction; their house is colder; their shower lukewarm and in all too many cases they wish they could get their old gas boiler back.”

In May, Mr. Bisby told The Epoch Times that attempts to regulate heat pump industries have “been fraught with problems.”

He said that appealing to people’s social and environmental consciences is “the sell.”

“I think that the consensus now is moving towards saying that they are not necessarily going to save any money over a gas boiler running a heat pump,” he said.

“By the time you have insulated your house and done all the other things, the capital investment, then it’s a very long time before you show any return on any of that and they are trying to stop them from selling heat pumps on that basis,” he added.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for comment.