Work together to cut electricity demand, political parties urged – Herald

Political parties in Scotland should commit to a national strategy to help
businesses and consumers reduce and manage their demand for electricity,
environmental and energy groups have said.

WWF Scotland and Edinburgh-based company Flexitricity have stressed that
implementing a concerted strategy regarding electricity consumption would
mean Scotland could avoid the need to build expensive new fossil fuel power
stations and more rapidly cut climate emissions.

The groups also asserted that such a strategy must go beyond energy
efficiency, and include measures to increasingly tap into the vast existing
“invisible” power network of industrial, commercial and public sector
organisations.

Demand response measures would allow energy users such as universities,
banks, supermarkets and datacentres to act as “virtual power plants.” By
voluntarily lowering their demand for electricity, these businesses and
organisations would help avoid the need to turn on conventional power
stations.

Gina Hanrahan, climate and policy officer at WWF Scotland, said:”It’s far
cheaper to reduce our electricity demand than it is to build new power
stations that are only used for short periods of time.

“If we want to cut consumer bills and lower climate emissions then demand
reduction must be a central part of any future energy strategy. Scotland’s
political parties need to commit to a national strategy to help consumers
and businesses cut their demand for electricity by at least 1 per cent a
year to 2030.

“The public might be surprised to learn that their local supermarket,
university or business could already be part of a small but rapidly
expanding network of ‘virtual power plants’. However, by using ‘smart grid’
technology to temporarily lower the electricity consumption, unnoticeably,
at hundreds of smaller locations we can avoid the need to switch on massive
polluting fossil fuel power stations.

Alastair Martin, chief strategy officer of Flexitricity, said: “We used to
think of electricity purely in terms of nuclear, coal and gas. It’s now
time to think of renewables, energy efficiency and demand response. The
technology needed to create a low-carbon, low-cost and secure electricity
future is already there.

“Scotland is already the European leader in demand response. By committing
to a comprehensive strategy to reduce energy demand, Scotland can increase
its competitiveness while making best use of its indigenous renewable
resources and alleviating fuel poverty.”