Cambridge Festival 2022 - UK Energy Price Crisis: A Panel Discussion

Speakers:
Dr David Reiner, Professor in Technology Policy, Cambridge Judge Business School
Claire Dykta, UK Head of Strategy, National Grid UK
Dan Alchin, Deputy Director, Retail at Energy UK
James Doig, Head of Decarbonisation, Ofgem

 

Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uk-energy-price-crisis-a-panel-discussion-tickets-266242156457

 

With dramatically rising wholesale energy prices since the autumn, the strain on suppliers has led to several dozen small energy firms going bankrupt. The UK Government’s energy ‘price cap’ temporarily postponed the immediate impacts of those price rises on consumers but they are set to be passed through on 1 April. If the envisioned price increases do go ahead they will be the single largest increase ever in household energy bills. What control mechanisms are available to soften the rise, what options are available to the government (such as removal of green levies or industry-wide loans) and what are the trade-offs involved? What should happen to the price cap? What could some of the regulatory developments mean over the short, medium or long-term for the Treasury and to UK energy and climate policy more generally? Join the panel to explore some of these questions and to let you pose your own.

Part of the Cambridge Zero Series, Cambridge Festival.

Dr David Reiner is a political scientist and is currently University Senior Lecturer in Technology Policy at Cambridge Judge Business School. David has advised government, industry and non-governmental organisations on energy and environmental policy, with a particular emphasis on the politics of climate change and the social acceptability of low-carbon or net-negative mitigation options for achieving net zero targets including carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, and other energy and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) options. He is frequently interviewed in national and international media including the BBC World Service, The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

David is also Assistant Director of the Energy Policy Research Group, and is a Research Associate of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research and the Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies Program, both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Claire Dykta is UK Head of Strategy for National Grid, one of the world’s largest investor-owned energy companies. She has worked in a diverse range of regulatory, commercial and operational roles and has been at the sharp end of changes in the UK Power sector, including being responsible for optimizing the power grid for the first UK coal-free day. 
 
Claire is passionate about driving the transition to a decarbonised energy system through embracing innovative and disruptive technologies, championing the role of the consumer and promoting the importance of diversity and inclusion in the energy sector.  She has been named in the @rise_utils list of the top 25 UK influencers in the energy industry, in the top 1000 @SustMeme global influencers on Climate & Energy and recognized in the 2020 HERoes women executives list.  She sits on the Advisory Board for the Oxford University-run UK Centre for Research on Energy Demand and also on the Advisory Board for the Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group.   Dan Alchin is Deputy Director, Retail at Energy UK. He is responsible for developing and leading the association's approach on retail and social policy issues. Dan previously worked in public affairs and communications, where he advised FTSE 100 firms and not for profit organisations on a wide range of public policy and political issues.

James Doig is Head of Decarbonisation at Ofgem and has been working on Ofgem’s retail policy during the energy crisis, including the measures taken to build market resilience and the proposed changes to the retail price cap.  He joined Ofgem in 2021 and has experience from across the GB energy sector, having worked in strategy roles in networks and energy retail businesses.

James has extensive international power and gas knowledge from his years advising policy-makers, regulators and investors across Asia as a principal at The Lantau Group in Hong Kong.  He started his career working as strategy consultant for L.E.K. Consulting in London and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a MSci in Natural Sciences.