While I was away, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee announced that it is to take a look at the question of "energy resilience". The terms of reference are here, and make for interesting reading. There is more than a little hint of "OMG, what has Ed Davey done?", with a leavening of "Maybe the boffins can save us". Needless to say, there's also reference to "We could get some more bureaucrats and hope we are no longer in office when the wheels come off".
11. We invite evidence on the resilience of the UK’s electricity infrastructure to peaks in demand and sudden shocks. We are interested in the resilience of the system both in the short term (to 2020) and in the medium term (to 2030) as electricity generation is decarbonised. In addition we could welcome evidence on the cost effectiveness of different approaches and the balance between achieving efficiency and sufficient redundancy to ensure a resilient system. We seek evidence on the impact and effectiveness of UK and EU policies, incentives and regulations in achieving this.
12. We are interested in the following questions:
Short term (to 2020)
- How resilient is the UK’s electricity system to peaks in consumer demand and sudden shocks? How well developed is the underpinning evidence base?
- What measures are being taken to improve the resilience of the UK’s electricity system until 2020? Will this be sufficient to ‘keep the lights on’?
- How are the costs and benefits of investing in electricity resilience assessed and how are decisions made?
- What steps need to be taken by 2020 to ensure that the UK’s electricity system is resilient, affordable and on a trajectory to decarbonisation in the following decade? How effective will the Government’s current policies be in achieving this?
- Will the next six years provide any insights which will help inform future decisions on investment in electricity infrastructure?
Medium term (to 2030)
- What will affect the resilience of the UK’s electricity infrastructure in the 2020s? Will new risks to resilience emerge? How will factors such as intermittency and localised generation of electricity affect resilience?
- What does modelling tell us about how to achieve resilient, affordable and low carbon electricity infrastructure by 2030? How reliable are current models and what information is needed to improve models?
- What steps need to be taken to ensure that the UK’s electricity system is resilient as well as competitively priced and decarbonised by 2030? How effective would current policies be in achieving this?
- Is the technology for achieving this market ready? How are further developments in science and technology expected to help reduce the cost of maintaining resilience, whilst addressing greenhouse gas emissions? Are there any game changing technologies which could have a revolutionary impact on electricity infrastructure and its resilience?
- Is UK industry in a position to lead in any, or all, technology areas, driving economic growth? Should the UK favour particular technology approaches to maintaining a resilient low carbon energy system?
- Are effective measures in place to enable Government and industry to learn from the outputs of current research and development and demonstration projects?
- Is the current regulatory and policy context in the UK enabling? Will a market-led approach be sufficient to deliver resilience or is greater coordination required and what form would this take?