Scotland’s Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee has led calls for the country’s government to adopt a “whole system view” of its energy market and requested greater clarity over smart meters and demand reduction measures.
In its ‘Plugged-in Switched-on Charged-up’ report, published yesterday by the Scottish Parliament, the committee has commented on matters related to Scotland’s energy security and how it can adapt to emerging issues such as demand side response.
The report has called for Scotland to consider and adopt “long-term planning and a whole system view that covers heath and transport as well as electricity”, responding to concerns that the latter two areas have been overlooked by current policy.
While Scotland and the UK in general has reported strong adoption of renewable electricity generation to date, the countries have lagged behind progress in heat and transport in comparison to the rest of Europe and have been noted as areas for concern by the Committee on Climate Change.
The committee has also stressed the need for a more concerted look at demand side response measures and urged Scotland’s government to investigate a demand side future strategy, while also making several recommendations on the UK government’s lacklustre roll-out of smart meters.
The report argues that government should be working harder to “make things easier for people to think and act differently” with regards energy consumption. “If people see how to save on their energy bills, they are more likely to be willing to change their behaviour as consumers,” the report states.
It has called on the UK government to initiate a “greater lead” on the smart meter programme but also requested that the government clarify how it will best serve energy consumers, echoing concerns from the Competition and Markets Authority over their introduction without reform of current attitudes to energy price settlement.
“What was described as a ‘very big prize’ in potential savings for consumers could instead end up in the coffers of energy suppliers,” the report states.
The committee’s study comes amidst a flurry of other investigations into the UK energy system and its need to reform. Just yesterday the Royal Academy of Engineering warned that “time is of the essence” in the UK’s need to overhaul its legacy energy structure, while a report compiled by major renewable energy firms Lightsource, Foresight and Good Energy claimed the UK could deliver savings to bill payers through the widespread adoption of a decentralised energy system built around solar, storage and smart metering.
