INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS
ENERGY SECURITY DAVID SEALL CEng FRAeS MiMMM MIoD David is the Regional Chairman of IoD South. He is a former Chair of IoD Surrey and is an experienced Non-Executive Director. He is retained by DMH Stallard LLP as their Strategic Adviser Manufacturing www.davidseall.co.uk ∕ www.dmhstallard.com
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fter discussing one of his motoring reports with the Editor the other day, I followed up on his advice and decided
make its contribution. Gas and coal generation
has reduced to around one percent, hence our
was turned up to full capacity but even that
problems in November. Government policy
wasn’t enough. The energy companies were
towards renewables has not been friendly, with
to follow up on the opportunity to drive a Tesla,
forced to pay large consumers to reduce usage.
the reduction in feed in tariffs and hostility to
one of the new trend of all electric vehicles. I
By the way this wasn’t mostly heavy industrial
on shore wind. Evidently we still need to top
must say that I concurred with his view that
consumers having to stop manufacturing, it
up renewable supply, if and when weather
vehicles like this are indeed the future, having
was mostly achieved by large offices turning off
conditions are working against it.
achieved acceptable range, zero emissions and
air conditioning. Why we need that in November
extraordinary levels of performance in a four
is another question. Ironically some of the
door executive class saloon car. Indeed cars
fracking industry to address this security of
electric cars would have been powered by coal
such as this are achieving ranges of around
fuelled power stations on that day, which is not
supply issue. Not perhaps as a replacement
270 miles and can be “boost charged” with 150
an ideal solution under any circumstances.
miles of electricity within 30 minutes.
as everyday transport the pressures are now ever increasingly on the national grid that supplies our power. Indeed, if all of us had these cars now the national grid would not be
“However, the insecurity closer to home is the lack of capacity in our national grid. ”
able to cope with the peak loading that would
supply within our own borders to augment our Interestingly, Tesla seems to have taken control of this issue by producing a new product, the Tesla Powerwall. This is drawn from their battery technology by producing an independent capacity to store electricity at home. The wall charges itself from either low cost electricity at low demand periods
occur when we all plug our cars into the socket at 7 pm in the evening. Think of the days when
for carbon neutral generation but as a secure needs when the grid is stressed.
With several automotive companies developing “plug in” cars that are now useable
IoD has taken a stance in support of the
It’s interesting that the major concern of
augmented by independent supply, for example
the grid had to turn on extra capacity during
IoD members when discussing energy is
domestic photo voltaic and wind turbines. The
the half time interval in the FA Cup final when
the security of supply. This manifests itself
electricity produced isn’t fed back into the grid,
millions of kettles were switched on to make a
obviously in the geo-political context with
it is stored and used for personal consumption
cuppa. That was supported by literally burning
much of our energy in the form of gas and oil
instead. The thought of an independent supply
tons of coal.
coming from increasingly politically unstable
of electricity to the home when the supply is
or hostile regions. However, the insecurity
cut off is a very attractive one, particularly to
the national grid ran out of power. With next to
closer to home is the lack of capacity in our
those of us who remember the power cuts of
no wind, our renewable wind power couldn’t
national grid. The redundancy in the system
the seventies!
During November, on a still Autumn weekday,
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