The UK Government has unveiled reforms to the country’s energy systems in an ambitious effort to bring the UK clean and secure energy.

The clean energy revamp also aims to protect households from energy price spikes, reindustrialise the country with thousands of skilled jobs, and tackle the climate crisis.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband will today (13 December) set out a detailed plan for achieving the target of clean power by 2030.

The plan is set to provide a foundation for the UK to build a clean energy system that can bring down bills for households and businesses for good.

The independent National Energy System Operator (NESO) set out pathways to a clean power system in 2030, and confirmed it was deliverable, more secure, and could see a lower cost of electricity and lower bills.

The plan includes measures to clean up dysfunctional grid system by prioritising the most important projects and ending the ‘first-come-first served’ system, as well as speeding up decisions on planning permission by empowering planners to prioritise critical energy infrastructure. Further, the plan aims to expand the renewable auction process to stop delays and get more projects connected.

According to the government, delivering on these reforms will unleash £40 billion a year of mainly private investment in homegrown clean power projects and infrastructure across the country, creating jobs across the country including engineers, welders, and mechanics.

“A new era of clean electricity for our country offers a positive vision of Britain’s future with energy security, lower bills, good jobs and climate action,” energy secretary Ed Miliband said.

“This can only happen with big, bold change and that is why the government is embarking on the most ambitious reforms to our energy system in generations.

“The era of clean electricity is about harnessing the power of Britain’s natural resources so we can protect working people from the ravages of global energy markets.

“The clean power sprint is the national security, economic security, and social justice fight of our time – and this plan gives us the tools we need to win this fight for the British people.”

Over the past five years, the grid connection queue has grown tenfold, and now contains an equivalent capacity of 79 GW. Many of these projects are speculative or do not have the necessary funding or planning permission to progress.

To meet the 2030 ambition, action is needed now to rationalise the queue and accelerate the projects that are critical to the goal. This means going beyond previous plans to deprioritise slow-moving or stalled projects and prioritise based on readiness alone.

Instead, this plan will help remove unviable projects, re-order the queue, and accelerate connection timescales for the projects needed most.

Cleaning up the queue will mean crucial infrastructure from housing to gigafactories and data centres can get a connection to the grid, helping to unlock billions of investment and grow the economy.

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The plan will further provide clarity on what the energy mix will look like for 2030 on a national and regional level, including updating the National Policy Statements for energy that guide planners so they have clear direction on the importance of delivering the right amounts of clean power and energy infrastructure for 2030.

The government is also bringing onshore wind back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime in England – this will make it easier to progress onshore farms larger then 100MW.

The government will also bring forward a Planning and Infrastructure Bill with measures to streamline the delivery of critical infrastructure in the planning process.

Communities will also be ensured by the government to benefit from hosting clean energy infrastructure.

Further reforms to accelerated homegrown clean power include expanding the renewable auction process, unlocking investment in supply chain, and introducing pro-consumer reforms to help households have more choice.