How we could help to secure future of our power supply

We are warned that the margin of surplus electricity generating capacity is now perilously narrow and still declining. Extra capacity will be very expensive to build. It is difficult to predict the size of future dips in supply and surges in demand, so any plausible amount of new capacity will reduce but not eliminate the risk of shortages.

Our repertoire for coping with shortage includes special arrangements with large industrial customers and exhortations to the general populace for restraint in consumption. If the effect of these proves insufficient then we come to power cuts; disconnecting supply to particular distribution areas for set periods in rotation.

This would simultaneously deprive us of facilities which are high in consumption and low in priority and others which are relatively low in consumption but high in priority. This suggests that, in parallel with some new power stations, we should be looking to establish more sophisticated control of consumption at the level of individual homes.

On the supply side of a household distribution board we would have a remotely programmable limit applied to the level of current which can be drawn without triggering cut-off. This level is communicated across to the customer side where it is reflected in the limits for individual circuits in accordance with priories set by the user. Households can keep their lights on without having to pay for generating capacity to stay ahead of some extreme and transient peak of demand which includes the more frivolous of uses.

From: John Fisher, Menwith Hill, Harrogate.

Listening to a programme discussing declining fossil fuels and alternative sources of green energy production, one expert discussed the possible use of north African desert areas using solar power generators to produce electricity. It was envisaged that the power generated could be used to supply parts of Africa and also transported via undersea cables to the nearest European land point. The solar power source could provide large quantities of clean energy, which in turn could also provide employment and a source of income to the countries nearby.

The only negative point raised was the security of the supply. So the possibility of an almost unlimited future supply of clean energy that could improve the lives of many people appears threatened by a small minority who seem determined to live in the past.