UK’s new state-owned energy company starts hiring

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The UK government has started recruiting staff for GB Energy, with plans to unveil the much-anticipated location for the Scotland-based state-owned company’s headquarters next month.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has posted job adverts on social media platform LinkedIn for “mid-senior level” positions for the new company, which will be capitalised with £8.3bn over the parliament to accelerate the rollout of clean power. The positions include engagement lead and energy project development lead roles.

At an event in Aberdeen on Thursday, energy minister Michael Shanks said the location of the GB Energy headquarters would be revealed “early next month”. Parliament returns from summer recess on September 2.

Setting up GB Energy was a key Labour manifesto pledge as it tries to develop more renewable energy and cut emissions from electricity generation to net zero by 2030. The company will own, manage and operate clean power projects while also helping to get newer technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen off the ground. 

The location of its headquarters has become highly contested in Scotland, where lobbyists have campaigned vigorously for Aberdeen, the capital of the North Sea oil industry, as its natural home.

Other potential locations include Edinburgh, the country’s financial and administrative capital, as well as Glasgow, Labour’s traditional Scottish heartland that swung back to the party from the SNP in last month’s general election.  

With the North Sea oil basin in decline, many in the north-east of Scotland fear the transition to renewable energy will result in economic deprivation. The government’s plans to increase the energy windfall tax have aggravated concerns over delivering a “just transition” from hydrocarbons to renewables.

An open letter from more than 40 organisations last week warned the UK government that the energy profits levy risked “thousands of jobs” in manufacturing, engineering and technology companies critical to progressing towards net zero targets.

Advocates argue that locating GB Energy in Aberdeen, a centre for offshore skills that can be transferred from the fossil fuel industry to clean power, would help assuage concerns.  

The engagement lead job is to be based in one of the DESNZ’s offices outside London: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh or Salford. The energy project development position could also be based in London. Both £52,985-a-year roles offer hybrid working, with an expectation of attending the office 40-60 per cent of the time.

The engagement lead role was “critical” to the success of setting up GB Energy, the advert said, which is seeking candidates from outside London and from Scotland in particular.

The role is central to developing policy, legislation and the institutional architecture needed to establish the company. The successful candidate would run a “hub” team handling communications, briefing and ministerial engagements.

The other role is for someone to “drive” the workstream for the Great British Energy Directorate’s energy project development.

Last month, the government announced a partnership between GB Energy and the Crown Estate, which leases seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to develop offshore wind projects.  

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has argued that developing more UK renewable power capacity will bring bills down over the long term by cutting the UK’s exposure to gas prices. 

British energy bills are set to rise this winter after Ofgem, Britain’s energy regulator, on Friday increased the price cap on energy bills for the final three months of this year by 10 per cent, blaming wholesale gas prices. 

“The only solution to get bills down and greater energy independence is the government’s mission for clean, homegrown power,” Miliband said on Friday.

On Monday, the transmission arm of UK energy group SSE said it would fast-track renewable energy in northern Scotland by raising the threshold at which new projects required assessments of their impact on the electricity grid.

SSEN Transmission, which is responsible for the electricity network in northern Scotland, raised the threshold from 50kW to 200kW, bringing the north in line with the rest of the country, allowing more projects — especially solar energy ones — to connect to the grid without the cost and delay of an assessment.

The change will allow 35 customers, generating a combined 5.2MW of power, to connect to the grid faster than previously anticipated. It does not include the Scottish islands, where the threshold remains at 50kW because of transmission constraints.