Electricty and Gas Markets Make Development Sustainable

Overall, energy efficiency in the UK has improved in the past few years.  While these improvements are notable, the fight for greener energy is just beginning.  Gas and electricity markets must continue their progress towards more environmentally friendly production while considering the impact the resulting cost will have on customers.

The UK Government is calling for the development of gas and electricity energy programs that are sustainable well into the future.  Power stations contribute about 33% of the total carbon dioxide emissions, and residential and industrial emissions comprise another 33%.  Innovations in these three sectors resulted in a 4% decline in emissions from 2006 to 2007, with the bulk of this improvement attributed to conversions from coal to gas and renewable energy solutions. 

Total energy consumption has declined steadily since 2005, with reports in 2007 indicating a 3% decrease.  Electricity markets disclosed a 3% reduction in consumer usage, and gas markets reported a 4% reduction.  The Governments target for the energy sectors is to continue in the direction of greater energy efficiency, with evidence of improvement every year. 

While achieving significant accomplishments in the search for a low carbon economy is the vision, limiting the financial consequences to customers must be considered as well.  Considering the current bleak economic picture, this is a quite an undertaking.  Three and one half million UK households were at fuel poverty level in 2006, and more than three-fourths of these were vulnerable households.  To be classified as a fuel poverty household, fuel costs for heating a home must exceed 10% of household income.  An estimated .7 million households in 2007 and .5 million households in 2008 were added to the growing list of fuel poverty households.

Ofgem (the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) organizes efforts between the Government and energy sectors for sustainable development programs.  Energy efficiency goals as well as consumer protection are managed by the agency.  Fuel poverty is a great concern for Ofgem, and they have set 2018 as the year that this overwhelming social issue is eliminated.   Ofgem is a dependable resource for the development, initiation, execution of green energy programs.

The gas and electricity sectors have achieved positive results from their efforts in the past several years to save energy, protect the nations supply of fuel, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and lower energy costs.  Ofgem has played a large role in the energy sectors reaching and exceeding low carbon goals.  Concentrated effort and further innovations are needed, however, in order to meet the Governments targets for continual improvement.

---

This page has been written with contributions from Gas Safe engineers from Northamptonshire and plumbing and heating engineers from Muswell Hill. Several of the company's experienced heating engineers from Berkshire have worked on similar issues as well as some of our heating engineers from Pimlico and our Westminster experienced plumbers.

Article Archive
RSS Feed :