Redesale highlights energy challenge
Lord Rupert Redesdale, founder of the Energy Managers Association, offered a stark warning about energy shortages when he spoke exclusively to MBS in October.
Speaking about the UK’s energy challenge, Lord Redesdale says: “We haven’t got enough.” In typically straight-talking mood, he also said that Government needs to take a more long-term approach to planning for energy requirements.
“For the last ten to twenty years there has been discussion about nuclear power stations, and how we might expect them to bridge the gap as we divest the grid of fossil fuels. But now it’s too late. A power station has a fifty-year lifespan, and politicians don’t think in those terms,” says Redesdale.
The UK energy market faces a number of challenges in the coming years, including changes in how National Grid charges for peak usage by commercial electricity users. There are also proposals to vastly reduce incentive payments to the small Embedded Generators who supply to the Grid at peak times, further reducing potential supply.
While the move to renewable electricity has been successful, it also brings its own challenges.
“The growth of renewables is good news. But energy output is intermittent and sometimes the energy is there at the wrong time. For example, on winter evenings when we need a lot of electricity for homes and businesses, solar photovoltaics are not productive,” says Lord Redesdale.
The EMEX event which takes place on 22nd and 23rd November will raise many of these issues, and offer insights into how businesses can cope with rising energy costs. See our preview.
For the full MBS interview with Lord Rupert Redesdale, see our News Analysis.
