Downloads / Electricity and nuclear

Democracy and Electricity: Institutions, Industrial Representation and Technology Deployment Rates

It is widely agreed that significant emissions cuts need to be undertaken in the electricity sector to meet the targets adopted in the Paris Agreement (IPCC 2018). Yet despite its urgency, many countries have been slow to transition to low-carbon technologies, leading to widespread concern that the international community will fail to meet its shared mitigation target. Countries’ divergent energy preferences have been attributed to several factors such as, for example, the political influence of interest groups (Marques et al. 2010; Cadoret and Padovano 2016) and their repurcussions on the national economy (IEA 2017; Teske et al. 2018; Brown et al. 2018). Yet all of these explanations originate from the assumption that political actors design energy policy with one fundamental goal in mind – to remain in power by deploying the most politically expedient energy sources. We contribute to this literature by investigating the effects of two observable sources of political returns attached to electricity deployment decisions – the level of democracy in countries’ formal political institutions and the strength of industrial interest groups.

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3rd
Jun
2021

The role of interconnectors in decarbonising Great Britain’s electricity system

Electricity interconnectors are considered as key investments for enhancing the security of supply, increasing overall social welfare and helping achieve decarbonisation targets through the optimal utilisation of the installed renewable generation capacity. The European Commission has been promoting the development of interconnections in parallel to market liberalisation and has set an ambitious target of 15% import capacity as compared to the installed generation capacity for all member countries by 2030.

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3rd
Jun
2021

Policies for a UK community energy revolution

Through promoting public engagement, social benefits and the democratisation of our energy system, community energy projects could play a significant role in a ‘just transition’ to a net-zero society. However, in the UK, growth in the community energy sector has recently stalled following a series of major changes in policies that had supported community-led energy projects, most notably the downgrading and eventual closure of the Feed-in-Tariff. The impact has been profound. In 2018 just eight new community organisations established versus 33 in both 2014 and 2015 (Community Energy England State of the Sector Report 2019). In the absence of both public grants and revenue guarantees, the UK community energy sector is having to innovate to navigate a route forward. It is doing so by adopting new energy technologies and novel business models, as well as moving into previously uncharted territory along the energy supply chain.

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3rd
Jun
2021

Conclusions from the DEePRED project – distributional impacts of flexible electricity tariffs

Whilst flexible electricity tariffs, such as Time-of-Use (ToU) and real-time, play an important role in motivating the shift of electricity demand away from the peak period and progressing towards Net Zero, their widespread implementation for residential customers may have an adverse effect on some groups of consumers. The objective of research work within the DEePRED (Distributional Effects of dynamic Pricing for Response Electricity Demand) project is to evaluate the distributional impact of flexible tariffs and identify groups of consumers who might be advantaged or disadvantaged based on by their socio-demographic parameters.

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3rd
Jun
2021

Energy Barometer 2016

Deane Somerville, Knowledge Team Manager, Energy Institute The 2016 Energy Barometer Report captures insights from UK energy professionals and enables them to form the energy debate, policymakers, influencers, the industry and the public. Deane Somerville has worked in the Knowledge Team at the Energy Institute for the past three years, and has been involved in the development and production of the Energy Barometer as well as other Knowledge Service products. Prior to joining the EI, he worked in environmental consulting, focusing on contaminated site remediation. Academically, his background is in Geology as well as Energy and Environmental Technology. Deane is a Graduate member of the Energy Institute.  

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Energy_Barometer_2016-Somerville.pdf 1.35 MB
21st
Sep
2016

Electrification of heating: the role of heat pumps

Dr Tina Fawcett, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford Russell Layberry, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford Nick Eyre, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford   Heating accounted for  44%  of UK national energy demand in 2011 (DECC, 2013). It is currently predominantly supplied by natural gas. However, the future of heating  is thought to be very different , with electrification expected on a grand scale. UK 2050 scenarios which meet the 80% carbon reduction target universally include an electrified heat supply. Most commonly, heat pumps are seen as the key technology, delivering 80-90% of heating.  While heat pumps can deliver low carbon energy services, given sufficient supplies of low carbon electricity, their contribution to the other energy policy goals of security of supply and affordable costs are much less certain. This paper will set out the major challenges for widespread adoption of heat pumps in the UK and worldwide, present original modelling work on the effect of heat pump adoption on electricity system peaks globally and for individual countries, discuss these findings in the context of other challenges to Read more…

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Fawcett-Layberry-Eyre-Electrification-of-Heating-v5.pdf 522.11 KB
18th
Sep
2014

Envisioning Smarter Power Futures: UK Smart Grid Scenarios

Dr Peter Connor, University of Exeter, Tom Watson, University of Westminster, Nazmiye Balta-Ozkan, University of Westminster, Colin Axon, Brunel University, Lorraine Whitmarsh, Cardiff University, Alexa Spence, University of Nottingham We present a set of socio-technical scenarios for the development of smart grids (SG) in the UK. Our scenarios examine markets and the role of new actors, consumer choices and perceptions, the importance and uses of data and information, policy drivers and barriers, investment decisions, and technological solutions for network assets. Our interdisciplinary programme integrated strong multi-stage stakeholder consultation. The UK offers an interesting test bed for smarter electricity networks in terms of policy, markets, regulation, and technology deployment. Heat and transport are expected to decarbonise through electrification, perhaps doubling demand to 2050; growth in renewable energy may improve security of supply yet introduce substantial intermittent capacity. It is unclear whether these drivers for smartness will be greater than the barriers, and the UK’s broken value chain may be a particular problem. The current network will need to become smarter, but at what rate? How can stakeholders be efficiently incentivised, and Read more…

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Connor-Envisioning-Smarter-Power-Futures.pdf 1.63 MB
18th
Sep
2014

Financing the UK Power Sector: is the Money Available?

 Dr Rob Gross, Imperial College, London Dr William Blyth, Imperial College The electricity sector needs to renew its ageing generation fleet, and shift towards capital-intensive low-carbon forms of generation. Over the past few years, various organisations and commentators have suggested that the sector may be unable to deliver, questioning whether there will be a sufficient flow of money into the sector to finance these investments. This report examines the evidence for these claims, looking at three key issues: ·     The size of the gap between required and current levels of investment, ·     The ability of energy companies to scale up their capital expenditures, ·     The ability of financial institutions to provide the necessary funds, and the mechanisms by which they might do so. Estimates of the size of the investment challenge range from the DECC / OFGEM figure of £110bn by 2020 to between £200bn to over 300bn by 2030 from organisations such as National Grid, the Committee on Climate Change and London School of Economics. These scenarios are assessed on a like-for-like annualised basis to understand the reasons for Read more…

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Blyth-Financing-the-UK-Power-Sector-BIEE.pdf 1.25 MB
18th
Sep
2014

Integrating the Social Cost of Power Outages into Reliability Planning

Mr Nelson Jr Enano, IEPI, UCL Australia, University College London Michel Berthelemy, IEPI, UCL Australia, University College London Tony Owen, IEPI, UCL Australia, University College London Stefaan Simons, IEPI, UCL Australia, University College London Overview: In electricity systems, the loss of load expectation (LOLE) is often used to assess the required capacity needed for system adequacy. While electricity consumers are accustomed to LOLE based level of reliability, there remains large uncertainty regarding the economic costs and risks power outages impose to electricity consumers. This uncertainty tends to increase with the liberalization of power markets, the possibility of demand-side participation, or the level of renewable energy penetration. In addition, the policy relevance of these structural changes is particularly relevant in developing countries where high level of power outages often remains the norm.   The value of lost load (VOLL) is the willingness to pay (WTP) of consumers to avoid an additional period without power (Leahy and Tol, 2011). This study outlines various methodologies that can be used to estimate the VOLL and presents the results of an empirical investigation to estimate Read more…

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Enano-Integrating-the-social-cost-of-power-interruption-with-reliability-planning.pdf 282.57 KB
17th
Sep
2014

Demand-Side Management Policy: Failure and Transferability

Mr Peter Warren, UCL Energy Institute Overview: Demand-side management (DSM) policy includes both energy efficiency and demand response and is becoming increasingly topical around the world due to energy security issues. Previous research has looked at what works, but not the mechanisms behind how and why certain government policies succeed or fail, and the transferability of best practices between countries.   Methodology: This paper presents the full results of a PhD, which undertook a systematic review of the global evidence over the last forty years from DSM policy evaluations across academic, industrial and government databases, to synthesise the mechanisms behind success and failure for specific policies. The systematic review is triangulated with Multi-Criteria Decision-Making analysis with key DSM policy experts.   Results: The research covered 27 countries on six continents. The full results are currently being analysed but preliminary results show that the three most successful policies globally are performance standards, utility obligations and fiscal measures. The two least successful policies globally are information campaigns and labelling. However, policy packages have shown some success in improving the effectiveness of information Read more…

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Warren-Demand-Side-Management-Policy-Failure-and-Transferability.pdf 422.58 KB
17th
Sep
2014

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