Mariano Ruiz Funes is the Group Director of Public Affairs & Policy & Stakeholder Engagement at Drax, a CBI member, and this article represents his views. For the CBI's view on the issues mentioned, please check out our latest reports.
The term “all roads lead to Rome” was coined at the height of the Roman Empire, when a 250,000-mile network of roads was constructed to connect the sprawling empire back to its capital.
As the UK looks to the future, it must balance a number of priorities ranging across economic opportunity, reindustrialisation, data infrastructure and security, electrification, national security, decarbonisation, quality of life and more. But all of these roads lead back to one foundational entry point: access to reliable, affordable power.
Power is actively shaping where investments are made. Just last month, Microsoft announced it was pulling out of a data centre project in Essex that had been hailed as the ‘largest UK sovereign AI datacentre’, citing power supply concerns as the primary motivation for the shift.
For most businesses deciding where to invest, some of the first questions asked include: can we get the power we need at the right location, at a price that makes the project work, and in the timescale we need it?
Right now, the UK does not always have a compelling answer.
What Britain does have is the skills, industrial sites, engineering heritage, and one of the cleanest power systems among major economies to compete in artificial intelligence, data centres, advanced manufacturing and the electrification of transport and industry. But these sectors will go where power is affordable, reliable, sustainable, and – perhaps one of the toughest criteria – available. If the country cannot offer that, growth is expected to go elsewhere.
Energy costs: the UK’s defining competitive issue
The CBI has rightly put the cost of doing business at the centre of the growth debate. Its work with Energy UK suggests British firms pay around 45% more for electricity than the G7 average.
When balancing delicate project financing to build a factory, electrify a process, or expand key infrastructure, 45% can be a dealbreaker. This is exactly why the energy system should be treated as an economic competitiveness issue.
The CBI has called for policy costs to be taken off business electricity bills, better support for firms that want to electrify, and reforms that reduce balancing costs. Those proposals sit alongside a wider agenda which includes simplifying the tax system, reforming business rates, speeding up planning, and delivering more certainty for investors.
While financially squeezed consumers need relief, more needs to change for real long-term price predictability to be achieved.
The next power system behind the next economy
During this year’s UK party conference season, there was a clear understanding across parties that energy costs don’t happen in isolation – they’re a symptom of the broader energy system. Temporary bill relief isn’t enough; we need to build an energy system that can meet the UK’s needs both now and in the future.
Electricity demand is set to grow by more than 30% by the mid-2030s as heating, transportation and industry electrify, and as AI and data centres expand. At the same time, more of our power is expected to come from weather-dependent renewables, which can create gaps between when power is generated and demand is highest. While these renewables represent a step in the right direction on sustainability and cost, the system needs to adapt to this shift to maintain reliability.
Britain needs more flexible generation, storage and optimisation to keep power available when renewable output reduces and to make better use of it when supply is abundant. Without that flexibility, efficiencies remain unrealised, constraint and cost balancing rises, and consumers do not feel the full benefit of more affordable renewable generation. In fact, they feel the opposite.
This is where companies such as Drax have a practical role to play. We are building on decades of experience operating critical energy infrastructure while developing a broader portfolio across sustainable biomass, hydro, pumped storage, solar, wind, batteries, and energy optimisation.
Together, these different forms of generation can help to provide the secure, affordable and increasingly low-carbon power a modern economy demands.
At the same time, the system and regulatory processes need to be modernised. Government has a vital role to play to address transmission bottlenecks that underutilise renewable generation in the north, streamline the years-long grid connection backlog, and advance policy that will provide investors and developers with the certainty they need to move forward with projects and unlock billions in investment.
As industry and government work together to pair a modernised grid with flexible generation and storage, the system can become increasingly capable of efficiently responding to dynamic demand.
Repurposing Britain’s existing strengths
The UK also needs to get better at turning good opportunities into real projects.
Established industrial sites often already have grid connections, transport links, skilled workforces and local supply chains. Making better use of those assets can, in some circumstances, be faster and more cost-effective than starting from scratch, and less disruptive for communities. It can also bring new investment to communities that have powered the country for generations.
The same practical thinking should guide regulation and planning. Businesses need clear decisions, predictable timescales and frameworks that recognise the value of flexibility. Public procurement can help create early demand for new technologies, but government’s most important job is to create investable markets and enable them to move at pace.
Ambition alone is not enough
The growth projected from modern technologies like AI, industrialisation, and electrification represents a generational opportunity. Across the planet, nations are locked in a race to build out the infrastructure that will ultimately determine where that opportunity can be realised.
How can the UK tell if it’s remaining competitive? If we reach the stage where projects are being built.
Affordable, reliable and flexible power must be at the heart of Government’s growth agenda. That means tackling the costs faced by businesses, supporting electrification, speeding up planning and grid decisions, and backing the flexible capacity that keeps the system reliable.
Industry must do its part as well to invest, innovate and prove that major infrastructure can deliver for customers, communities and the wider economy.
The countries that get energy right will attract the industries of the future. Britain can be one of them – but only if we stop treating power as a policy issue among many and recognise it for what it is: a foundational pillar of a competitive economy.
Drax are a proud Corporate Partner of this year's CBI Annual Conference. Mariano Ruiz Funes will join us at this year's Conference on 23 November as part of the panel for Powering the next economy: scaling and retaining innovative businesses.
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