Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark has announced that an independent review led by energy expert Dieter Helm will look at how the energy industry, the Government and regulators can keep the cost of electricity as low as possible, while ensuring that the UK meets its domestic and international climate-change targets.

This review builds on the commitment made in the Industrial Strategy green paper and will consider the whole electricity supply chain — generation, transmission, distribution and supply.

It will look for opportunities to reduce costs in each of these areas and consider the implications of the changing demand for electricity, including the role of innovative technologies such as electric vehicles, storage, robotics and artificial intelligence.

Mr Clark said: “All homes and businesses rely on an affordable and secure energy supply, and the Government is upgrading our energy system to make it fit for the future.

“We want to ensure that we continue to find the opportunities to keep energy costs as low as possible, while meeting our climate-change targets.

The review will consider how we can take advantage of changes to our power system and new technologies to ensure clean, secure and affordable supplies over the coming decades.”

Professor Helm said: “The cost of energy always matters to households and companies — especially now in these exceptional times, with huge investment requirements to meet the decarbonisation and security challenges ahead.

Digitalisation, electric transport and smart and decentralised systems offer great opportunities. It is imperative to do all this efficiently, to minimise the burdens.

“Making people and companies pay excessively for policy and market inefficiencies risks undermining the objectives themselves.”