In 2014 BIEE celebrated two anniversaries; the Institute itself was 30 years old and the academic conference its 10^th. To mark this,  we  published a series of articles on the changing energy landscape written by current and  former BIEE  Presidents, Council  and Conference Chairs, starting with speeches given by our incoming  and outgoing Presidents, Charles Hendry MP and Lord Howell given in October last year. For more information about our 10th academic conference celebrations please visit the conference webpages

In terms of looking at how we keep the lights on, I think that phrase has become slightly hackneyed. I think most of us recognise that this is not really about keeping the lights on – certainly in the medium term, the issue is more likely to be that for a few hours of a few days, there would be energy shortages and electricity shortages.  But that is going to be bad enough and it is something which government has to take profoundly seriously, because I think the first role of government in energy policy is to deliver energy security. There are a number of different aspects of security that I think we need to take into account in looking at that. First of all it, does mean enough generating capacity to ensure that there is supply when it is needed and that is one of the mountains we need to climb at the moment. We face the biggest ever need for investment at a time when there is the biggest ever uncertainty about how it is going to be Read more…

During the nine years of my Presidency not one but three major revolutions have overtaken the world of energy – with immense consequences for the British energy scene , amongst others. All three have been handled with varying degrees of skill and competence, all three are on-going and all three have been surrounded by a thick forest of misrepresentations, misunderstandings and sometimes outright myths. The first revolution is of course the great green transformation to a low carbon world , misleadingly billed as relatively cheap but in fact turning out to be vastly expensive and very hard on consumers- especially in Europe. The second revolution comes from shale gas and oil and greatly improved hydraulic fracturing methods. Even if this stayed only in America it would still have a fundamental impact on world energy. In fact it will spread patchily to very many countries and regions. The third revolution- or more accurately, series of revolutions – has been in the downward spiral of chaos , upheaval and violence in the Middle East, hitherto regarded as the cradle of world energy Read more…

My interaction with the BIEE goes right back to the early days when the 2nd international meeting of the IAEE was held in my college, Churchill, Cambridge. I was working in the World Bank from 1981-83 but arrived back for the 6th IAEE conference, also held at Churchill College, whose master, Sir William Hawthorne, had succeeded the first master, Sir John Cockroft, both important figures in the energy world. Cockroft famously split the atom, and played a leadership role in the commercial development of nuclear power. It was at his insistence that Windscale be fitted with stack filters that prevented the nuclear disaster causing a worse radiological leak. Hawthorne worked on the early development of jet engines, the precursor to modern Combined Cycle Gas Turbines, and was active on many energy committees, and founding chair in 1974 of the Advisory Council on Energy Conservation. My interest in energy economics was sparked by an invitation to work with Joe Stiglitz in Stanford in 1976, when the topic of the day was theory of exhaustible resources (Heal and Dasgupta were visiting at Read more…

The BIEE is an organisation very close to my heart. I have been attending BIEE events since the early 1990s. In my view, it is the only organisation in Britain which brings together such a wide range of energy actors – whether from business, Government, academia and so on;  with such a diversity of ages – from students through to eminent, retired people;  in such a range of informal settings in a non-profit manner. Thus, BIEE allows young people to be able to meet well-known energy people, who usually only attend expensive commercial meetings.  The mixing of such a diverse set of people and the attendant distribution of knowledge is a wonderful defining characteristic of the BIEE. It is because of this that I have stayed involved, and will continue to do so.  In 30 years the BIEE has had two female Chairs,  of which I was one. The following article, written for my IGov blog, reflects on an aspect of the energy industry that has not kept up with the times. A recent Ernst and Young report has shown Read more…

22-23 September, 2010 For the past two decades, European energy policy has been based on the belief that markets are best able to provide secure supplies of energy at lowest cost. As a consequence, Governments have, to varying degrees, delegated the responsibility for the provision of energy to industry. Now that the participants are facing large investment programmes, on account of ageing asset replacement and the targets for renewable energy and greenhouse gas reductions, many are questioning whether these companies will be willing or able to make the necessary investments. After all, economic theory may suggest that “markets” are superior, but it is financial considerations, not economics, that determines whether assets get built. This conference examined whether the need to consider the financial issues raised by different policy measures could, or should, have implications for the design of the policy instruments required to meet the new energy economy. With hindsight, those two glorious sunny days in September were something of a turning point in energy economics/politics. The agenda was designed specifically to contrast the difficulty of making investments in competitive Read more…

September 19-20, 2012. As the UK moves back to being a substantial net energy importer, its interactions with the wider European energy markets take on a new importance. The task of decarbonising the electricity sector, requiring around £200 billion of investment by 2020, may be eased by additional interconnections with neighbouring systems. Swings in oil prices show what can happen when supply and demand are subject to shocks, and the emerging economies are forecast to add substantially to demand for oil and gas over the next decade. Against this, could Shale gas supplies have the same effect on European prices as in the USA? We also need to lay the technological foundations for decarbonised heat and transport – which routes will be successful, and how can we choose between them? Do the EU and its member states have appropriate, integrated, policies for this challenging decade? This conference examined the economic and policy implications of these developing trends. The conference examined whether existing policies (with suitable amendments) could meet the challenges ahead, or whether a more radical approach would be required? Read more…

The BIEE traces its origin to the 1st Annual International Conference of the IAEE in Washington DC in 1979. On that occasion, the UK Government representatives were Jane Carter, Eric Price and John Barber,all UK Department of Energy leading a group of some 20 delegates from the UK. In 1980 the decision was taken by David Howell, Secretary-of-State for Energy on recommendations approved by his Permanent Under-Secretary, Sir Donald Maitland to establish an independent company with charitable status and to secure sponsorship from the leading British energy companies. It was formally established as a company limited by guarantee in 1984, becoming a registered charity in 1985, and has been governed by its Council of voluntary officers elected by the members since then. A full annual BIEE programme of lectures, seminars, and workshops has been held since the early 1980′s. Annual Conferences have been mainly hosted by the Universities of London, Cambridge, Oxford and Warwick. Until 2013 , the Annual General Meeting was held each October in the premises of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where the BIEE permanent secretariat Read more…