The current UK energy system was developed around large industrial power plants.

In 1960, 90% of UK electricity was generated by coal fired power stations, moved around the country on a giant high voltage transmission network. In the years since then, the UK electricity mix has completely changed, such that coal is now almost completely removed from the system. The most visible place to witness the decline of this old system is in the region known as “Megawatt Valley“, which in 1986 generated fully one quarter of the UK’s electricity from just 13 power stations. Critically important to this location was the availability of locally produced coal from the Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire collieries, as well as an abundant water supply from the River Trent. Almost all of these power stations have since closed, or have been re-purposed for natural gas (or in the case of Drax Power Station, biomass).

The quick glance at the interactive Carbon Brief UK power generation map shows how the power generation landscape has changed. This map is fascinating, and well worth a look – a screen shot is shown below. The map displays all the commercial power generation facilities in the UK. These range from off-shore wind farms, to solar farms, to ‘run-of-the-river’ hydro plants in the Scottish Highlands through to waste disposal sites using excess methane to generate electricity. There are now thousands of facilities across the country.

As renewable sources of electricity have increased, so the complexity of the network has increased. It is the job of National Grid Electricity Supply Operator to manage this complexity and bring on board new supply onto the grid. To highlight the challenge, we can have a quick look at this recent data capture from the period 7 – 13 March 2023.

Wind power (in green above) varied from only 3.8% of UK generation output at 21.00 hrs 07 March 2023 (1.3 GW) up to 68.5% at 04.30 hrs on 13 March 2023. Solar power (yellow/orange above) offers chunks of power at various times each day.

So generation from renewables varies hugely from minute to minute throughout the day, whilst demand is fairly predictable, with a clear “off-peak” period in the early hours of the day.

Under the current model, electricity generation from Gas powered plants is used to balance the grid, surging to meet demand as required (shown in blue above).

National Grid ESO recently published a Future Energy Scenarios document to illustrate how the country might navigate its way to a Net Zero Future.

Several things stand out for consumers:

• Energy efficiency is a “no regrets” solution. It provides a range of immediate benefits.
• Customer engagement will be required to manage demand.
• Smart technologies will underpin this change
• Electricity storage is vital
• The entire electricity system requires flexibility to ensure it remains balanced

And, perhaps most importantly for consumers is what is unspoke. The level of innovation and infrastructure investment that is required to deliver this Zero Carbon Future, mean that the cost of energy purchased from the grid seems highly unlikely to return to pre-Covid levels.

Investing in your own electricity supply and storage capacity, and therefore becoming independent from the National Grid allows you to insulate yourself from these rising and elevated energy prices.

Let Brimstone Energy be your partner as we navigate these changes together.