💥 Why Ofgem Isn’t the Real Problem — Net Zero Is

📢 The political class blames Ofgem for the mess. But the truth is simple: energy bills are high because the Net Zero experiment is being forced onto the grid at any cost — and that cost lands on you.

According to Confederation of British Industry, policy costs now account for up to 24 % of UK electricity bills.
This includes:

Subsidies under Contracts for Difference,

Renewables Obligation and Capacity Market levies,

Transmission upgrades,

And future nuclear and storage support.


Ofgem doesn’t invent these charges. It is legally forced to pass them through to every home and business in Britain.

🌀 2. Curtailment is a hidden tax

When intermittent wind and solar produce power that the grid can’t handle, operators get paid not to generate.

These “curtailment payments” have already cost billpayers over £1 billion in a single year, and they’re rising fast.

Why? Because wind and solar are often sited hundreds of miles from where demand actually is — requiring massive and expensive new transmission lines.

🏗️ 3. The new grid for renewables is eye-wateringly expensive

Under Beyond 2030 plans from National Grid ESO, Britain faces the largest grid overhaul since the post-war period:

New pylons across the countryside,

Dozens of super grid transformers,

Billions in reinforcement just to keep unreliable generation online.


This isn’t paid for by the Treasury — it’s loaded directly onto bills.

🏢 4. Ofgem has grown because Net Zero has made the system chaotic

Dhara Vyas is right that Ofgem’s headcount has surged 120 % and its budget 200 % in a decade.

But that’s because Net Zero has created a labyrinth of subsidy schemes, market codes and interventions. The regulator now oversees 10,000+ pages of rules. This isn’t “gold-plating” for its own sake — it’s the cost of enforcing a political agenda.

🧾 5. Breaking up Ofgem won’t fix the real problem

Industry wants Ofgem slimmed down, and that might tidy up the paperwork — but it won’t make energy cheaper.

As long as Net Zero targets remain legally binding under the Climate Change Act 2008 and enforced by Climate Change Committee carbon budgets, policy costs will keep rising — whatever the shape of the regulator.

🚨 6. Energy bills are rising because ideology replaced engineering

The push to electrify everything using weather-dependent generation has created:

Higher system costs,

Lower reliability,

Massive grid investment burdens,

And escalating curtailment and balancing payments.


These are political choices — not technical necessities.

✊ A Real Alternative

Britain doesn’t need a bigger regulator.
It doesn’t need to double down on a failing Net Zero model.
It needs a complete reset of energy policy:

Suspend Net Zero carbon budgets and restore engineering logic to the grid.

Prioritise baseload AC generation — nuclear, gas, hydro.

Back British technologies like Rolls-Royce SMR instead of importing unreliable solar panels.

Replace subsidy sprawl with a simple, sovereign energy strategy.