Consumers and Climate Pay a very High Price for an Increasingly Outdated Grid
Climate change is real and action is now being prioritised globally. The world is currently accelerating towards a new industrial revolution, driven by massive adoption of a smarter and cleaner energy system created by Internet of Things and industrial automation driving energy efficiency, and cleaner energy from renewables-led electrification across all areas of consumption.
The backbone to this industrial revolution is the electricity transmission and distribution grid. Grids are the largest made structures on the globe developed over the last century Their design fundamentals predate digital technology and the modern pressures on the system.
Grids were designed based on having large, fossil fuel generators at their heart and a hub and spoke distribution system. This is fundamentally changing.
The change to renewables replacing fossil fuels as the primary energy generation source requires a very different grid architecture and creates a totally new set of power quality issues. Coal fired power plants produce a steady 50 or 60Hz signal with significant ‘inertia’. Wind or solar are variable, influenced by the weather, which creates issues with the electricity signal that permeates into the network. Without resolution, this leads to instability and grid failure, power outages and equipment failure.
Today’s distribution grids have a design based on the assumption that power generation can be centrally steered and flows from transmission to the end customer. Renewable energy does not meet either of these assumptions. Grids are no longer fit for purpose for the future of power generation and consumption requirements. The costs to manage this are rapidly escalating. In the UK alone, £1.2bn per annum is spent on balancing services in an attempt to address these issues. By 2030, this is forecast to triple as renewable generation increases.
As the UK only represents 1.3% of the global electricity usage, the global cost on integrating renewables into outdated grids is truly enormous. Consumers and the climate are paying a very high price for an increasingly outdated grid.
