Energy

[Class 317]

One area that has progressed quite a bit this year is energy storage. Battery storage capacity has doubled from 2.3gwh to 4.5gwh.
Approved and financed schemes will likely double this again next year and accelerate after this.

Also pumped storage schemes approved in Scotland will increase pumped storage capacity from 24gwh to 50gwh by around the early 2030's.

Storage will start to contribute over the next couple of years to a reduction in requirements to switch on gas plants to deal with demand spikes accelerating a reduction in gas use. Also increased storage capacity will mean less renewables are paid to turn off as their will be much more capacity to store excess electricity.available.

The new north south grid connections going in over the next few years will also help in both these regards.

I'd expect the rate of renewable energy on the grid to accelerate at a faster rate in the next few years.

 

[Noddy]

With regard to demand falling, it seems to me that there are more incentives being offered to cut consumption. I'm still signed up with Loop and there have been quite a few "turn down and save" events so far. This year there have been a few "on the day" requests whereas previously they were announced a day or two in advance.

My supplier (EDF) also invited me to take part in its scheme, but I can't take part in both. The amount of money I will earn isn't huge but it'll be sufficient enough to finance a couple of nights in my local.

Like you I’ve taken part in these events (through my supplier and been credited a mighty £8 or so) but I don’t think this would account for the drop? According to the graph demand has been trending downwards steadily since about 2012/13 (and that’s a far as it goes) despite the uptick in demanding things like EVs and to a lesser extent domestic heat pumps.

 

[Class 317]

The downward trend is primarily driven by LED lighting and more efficient electronic goods.
It's interesting that 1.5 million EV/PHEV's on the road which is about 4% of cars has not countered this trend yet.
Heat pumps are installed so far in such low numbers to not really register in the figures yet but may do in the future.

 

[MotCO]

Is the reduction due to the reduction of heavy industry in the UK? In 2014, there were 12m tonnes of steel produced in the UK; in the last few years it has been 7m tonnes. Much of our industry (and CO2 production) has been off-shored to the detriment of the UK's economy.

 

[Class 317]

Is the reduction due to the reduction of heavy industry in the UK? In 2014, there were 12m tonnes of steel produced in the UK; in the last few years it has been 7m tonnes. Much of our industry (and CO2 production) has been off-shored to the detriment of the UK's economy.

I'm not sure that would be significant as it's a small part of electricity use. Industrial use of electricity has I believe been pretty stable over the last decade or so .

Having said that I have worked on quite a few sites in the last 12 months that have significantly reduced their electricity use through both efficiency improvements and basic good housekeeping.

 

[ainsworth74]

I'm not sure that would be significant as it's a small part of electricity use. Industrial use of electricity has I believe been pretty stable over the last decade or so .

Some industrial facilities also came with their own power stations as well to meet at least part of their demand such as the old Redcar steelworks which had a power station on site.

 

[brad465]

The average gas power demand also fell below 10GW in 2023 (9.91 according to National Grid Live), with wind just climbing over 9GW to 9.02GW. The last 2 weeks being both very windy and low energy demand due to Christmas really swung it somewhat; before that wind was just below its last year value and gas was above 10GW average.

 

[Noddy]

The average gas power demand also fell below 10GW in 2023 (9.91 according to National Grid Live), with wind just climbing over 9GW to 9.02GW. The last 2 weeks being both very windy and low energy demand due to Christmas really swung it somewhat; before that wind was just below its last year value and gas was above 10GW average.

True but there was also a lot of curtailment going on, so if demand over Christmas had been higher so would have wind production. Over that last three months of the year wind production has been higher than gas.