A chat with Miya Paolucci: UK is a model for Europe on offshore winds
Miya Paolucci , Head of GEMS UK and Executive Committee member, is Britain’s new country manager. She shares some insight on the local market, an advanced one for renewables.
- Article
- 06/02/2024
What is your #1 priority as the UK’s new Country Manager?
Make the One ENGIE spirit a reality is my main challenge. In the UK, ENGIE has strong and successful businesses, but scattered geographically and working in a relative isolation. Since 2019, I have been responsible for energy management activities in the UK for GEMS, a central piece to the integrated model.
So, I have already been working with the GBUs in the UK. As a country manager, I am again, through the support functions, a service provider to the GBUs. I can also represent them to the external world, speaking in the name of ENGIE to the press or to authorities. But I do respect their autonomy: I am not their boss! It is a complex balance to achieve. In the end, my goal is that all teams trust each other and feel driven by the same ambition.
The UK is a pioneer country in the energy transition. What should global leaders know about it?
The UK is a very interesting market, the first in Europe to liberalize as early as the 1990s. Britain has developed early advanced instruments like the capacity market and Contracts For Difference (CFDs) which served as models for the whole continent. The UK is clearly driven towards energy transition with law binding net zero targets by 2050. There is a political consensus on the direction. And it has always been an investor-friendly market.
What is notable about the energy mix in the UK?
Britain has been decommissioning thermal generation capacities at a very high pace: coal plants have been almost completely pushed out of the mix and gas fired plants are also being progressively decommissioned or converted to hydrogen. The development of renewable capacities is happening at fast pace. The largest contributor is offshore wind: if you’ve ever cruised Scottish seas, you’d agree wind is a largely available resource!
Our joint venture with EDPR, Ocean Winds, already operates a 950MW offshore wind farm, Moray East and is building a sister project, Moray West, of almost 900MW. The very large proportion of intermittent generation creates challenges for the electricity network and a need to balance out the system in a very dynamic manner. Our subsidiary First Hydro operates the largest pumped-storage hydroelectricity facilities in North Wales, with 2 GW of installed capacity: it acts like a giant battery and is highly critical for the system!
ENGIE is also investing in further flexible assets, with two 50MW/1000MWh batteries in construction in Scotland. Promising challenges!