From Power For People:
It’s official: The Government has done what we were calling for and put support for community energy into its Great British Energy Bill. The Bill sets up the Great British Energy company, a much-heralded part of greenhouse gas emissions reduction plans. This company is expected to spend £8 billion on this over the next few years, making it vital that this legislation which sets it up ensures community energy’s growth is supported. The Bill now specifically enables the company to promote the growth of community-led energy projects alongside larger ones.
I lead with the above because when I see comments on social media about power generation here in Scotland it is clear that little is understood generally about the generation, distribution and ownership of our power.
While I am very supportive of the campaign for better provision of community energy, this does not take away from what is happening in the commercial energy sector and how it is affecting communities across the UK and particularly in Scotland. Nothing changes here because the market is different in the sense of its relationship with and the composition of its customer base.
First of all we need to understand that not only is the energy sector not owned by Scotland, it isn’t owned by England either. Margaret Thatcher in what it pleased her to call her thinking, ensured that the entire sector fell into private hands and the UK government retained no ownership whatsoever and this is the reason why our energy prices are so high.
A look at Wikipedia’s entry for the National Grid will give a flavour of the complexity of developments following the break-up and sale of the CEGB in 1990. If reading that gives you a headache, try the list of energy producers – over twenty of them – and although some names may be familiar, most will not, but they all have something in common – they are owned entirely by international institutional investors.
Given that industry estimates suggest that demand for electricity worldwide will double by 2028 and that virtually all of that increased demand will be in the business/industrial sector, supply to the domestic market is in danger of becoming an afterthought if, in fact, it is not already.
The issue which we are concerned with, of course, is pylons, conversion plants and battery farms across Scotland’s landscape. Although there are many action groups on the same subject across England as well as here, it is clear that, with the increase in wind farms in Scotland, this power has to be moved to where it is needed and the method of its transmission is the problem we face. Sadly, on an international basis, this problem will not go away.
An interesting development recently has been the UK government’s purchase of the National Grid’s operations in England. It seems on the face of it that this is a good move in that at least the UK public can benefit from state ownership but cynics have suggested that this is a way of deflecting public opposition to the new power grid. In Scotland SSEN and SSE still own and run the grid but their idea of public consultation falls far short of what we might expect. We could have designed a less intrusive system but what we are getting now was formulated five years ago and it is not likely to change in any meaningful way.
And so to community energy schemes.
Power For People have campaigned for some years on this subject and have recently achieved an important piece of legislation which at least provides funding for community energy projects. But much needs to be done. Nevertheless it is a good start. Such schemes could reduce the cost of energy to the domestic consumer greatly although it still leaves the fight over pylons, conversion stations and battery farms to be waged further.
I know the above is not very positive but at least we should teach ourselves more about the energy system and maybe find a better way of mitigating its effects.
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