Monday, 22 June 2009 06:24

National Grid released a report on Friday that painted a picture of the energy future there consisting of smart meters, electric cars, and novel ways to store energy.  These new technologies will help level Britain’s supply and demand for energy by the year 2020 when the country is relying much more on wind farms and nuclear plants and much less on fossil fuels.

National Grid pointed out that extra storage capacity for the variable supply of wind power was not the only solution in the works.  Consumers will play an active role in reducing the demand on the power grid and could be central to levelling energy supply and demand.

Britain, along with the other EU members, has agreed to the “20-20-20” energy conservation pact at the end of last year.  Overall carbon emissions must be 20 percent below the carbon emissions produced in 1990 by the year 2020. Also that year, the share of renewable energy present in the aggregate energy supply must equal 20 percent.

For Britain to reach these goals it will mean a sharp increase in the amount of wind power.  Some worry that such a dependence on the blowing wind leaves the power supply to chance because, after all, the wind is not always blowing.

Nuclear power plants with greater generation capacity are expected to come into service in the ensuing decades as well and are expected to generate a much bigger share of Britain’s power supply.  Dependence on nuclear power raises concerns over nuclear outages in the future that would require a huge amount of backup power in order to keep the lights on.

“Traditionally people have thought you just need more backup generation,” said Stewart Larque, a spokesman for National Grid.  “But there are some really good ways we can bring demand down in the future.”

National Grid is responsible for the electricity and natural gas transmission system supplying all of Great Britain.  It believes that better weather forecasting, newly discovered and developing technologies, and advanced control systems will boost the backup power supply.

The amount of power currently in reserves is about 4 gigawatts.  Increased reliance on wind power is expected to increase the amount of power needed in reserve to 8 gigawatts, according to the National Grid report.  A gigawatt is enough energy to supply around 1 million homes.

“There will be times when there is not wind out there and that can coincide with peak demand,” added Larque.

The smart grid could control smart meters in shifts when consumers aren’t using as much power to ease the demand during peak times.  Another option is to encourage electric car owners to charge the batteries overnight instead of daytimes, said the report.

New storage technology could play a far more important role where the use of large flywheels or compressed air that quickly converts energy into electricity by turning a turbine, said National Grid.

The report said that taking these steps could free up another 8 gigabytes of energy.  “The way we operate and the way the electricity market operates is likely to change,” said the report.  “The way that consumers, large and small may interact with the market may also change considerably.”

National Grid
1-3 Strand
London, ENG WC2N 5EH
United Kingdom
http://www.nationalgrid.com
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