It would seem to be an odd time to speak about equity in power; in the course of a disaster when issues appear so very unfair. However for years, individuals have been saying that our antiquated, soiled, centralised power system has been a supply of unfairness and injustice in our society; the power disaster of 2022 – pushed by points with gasoline provide – is simply the newest merchandise on an extended record.
Renewables present a part of the answer, they’re already making power greener, safer, and cheaper than it might be in any other case… So the massive query is that this: how will we use renewables to construct an power system that works to make the world a fairer, cleaner, greener place?
Our soiled power system: a local weather catastrophe
One apparent supply of unfairness is the local weather emergency – and our power programs occur to be on the centre of it.
It’s a narrative most of us know effectively by now: The UK’s power grid was designed round massive, soiled, costly fossil-fuel-burning energy vegetation, and that’s solely simply starting to alter.
To make issues worse, we’ve exported our power system everywhere in the world, with carbon copies cropping up over all industrialised and industrialising nations. Within the mid-twentieth century individuals started to understand that each one the coal, oil, and gasoline we’d been spewing into the ambiance had been trapping warmth. In impact, we’ve been turning the Earth into a large greenhouse; elevating temperatures – and so sea ranges, and creating ever extra excessive climate occasions, from hurricanes to droughts.
Now clearly the local weather disaster feels unfair in a common sense – none of us actually had a say in all of this (we’ll come to that in a minute). But it surely’s additionally unfair in a way more rapid method.
Over the previous few many years, research after research has proven that those that contribute least to the local weather disaster expertise its very worst results. Right here within the UK, people who find themselves worse off usually have far smaller carbon footprints on common, but are way more uncovered to the impacts of the local weather disaster. To take only one homegrown instance, when Shropshire was affected by flooding related to Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis in 2020, those that have been much less effectively off – and unable to pay for flood insurance coverage (usually upwards of £7,000 in these areas) – have been left way more uncovered, and got here off far worse. This similar disparity is repeated everywhere in the world, and is very seen in Asia, Africa, the Center East and South America.
How’s any of that truthful?
Provided that at present, our power system nonetheless depends on burning fossil fuels, all this local weather injustice has been arduous baked into the system, however luckily, efforts are underway to repair this mess..
Renewables: a fairer approach to hold the lights on
One apparent approach to make power fairer is to take away the dangerous, costly fossil fuels on the centre of our system. Renewables like wind generators and photo voltaic farms are, after all, a useful instrument on this combat.
Provided that they don’t burn any soiled gas to run – and so have a a lot decrease carbon footprint – they don’t exacerbate current climate-related injustices in the identical method. And as they proceed to outperform, and substitute fossil gas turbines, renewables cut back local weather associated injustice, making the system fairer total.
Right here, Octopus Power helps to steer the cost
Octopus is considered one of Europe’s largest traders in renewables: working £4 billion value of inexperienced power turbines throughout 7 nations – sufficient to energy 2.1 million houses. Actually, we run 1 in 10 photo voltaic farms throughout the UK. And we’re not stopping there. Earlier this yr, for instance, Octopus Power Technology signed offers to spice up its wind capability by 90% – sufficient to energy half 1,000,000 extra houses. (Discover out extra about Octopus Power Technology).
What’s extra, as one main research explains, undoing soiled power choices ‘is required as a lot as putting in renewables with a view to obtain the next stage of power fairness’, and luckily, we’re working arduous on this area too.
With regards to ending our reliance on gasoline, electrification is vital. With an growing portion of our electrical energy coming from low cost, inexperienced renewables, electrification is nice for the local weather, for power safety, and for our wallets.
With that in thoughts, Octopus has arrange a multi-million pound program for the decarbonisation of heating, aimed toward lowering our dependence on gasoline and offering cheaper, fairer, greener heating to individuals throughout the UK. That is important, as a result of it reduces per family gasoline consumption by a median of 80%, massively lowering our reliance on fossil fuels total, bringing down the worth of power for everybody, and making crises just like the one we’re in in the intervening time a lot much less possible.
In the same vein, Octopus Electrical Automobiles are driving down the worth on EVs, lowering our dependence on fossil fuels by working to assist section out fossil fuelled vehicles.
Soiled fossil fuels = unfair pricing
Just lately, the worth of fossil fuels has skyrocketed, leaving individuals struggling the world over. Renewables then again, stay the world’s least expensive power sources. Even with out subsidies – renewables have been cheaper than gasoline and coal lengthy earlier than the power disaster. What’s extra, as a result of the ‘gas’ they use to run (daylight, wind, and waves) doesn’t value a factor, renewables aren’t uncovered to the identical dangers as fossil fuels, and so these dangers aren’t handed on to power customers.
On this present disaster, for instance, a provide bottleneck, due partially to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is chargeable for pushing gasoline costs to report highs, however it’s way more troublesome to think about a problem like that in a system with renewable power at its coronary heart.
The present disaster has additionally made it that a lot clearer that our wider power pricing system could possibly be an entire lot fairer; there are clearly points with how the prices are distributed. With that in thoughts, Octopus are at present pushing for an ‘Power Tariff Deficit Fund’ to freeze the worth cap in place.
What’s extra, within the UK’s system, there is a single, constantly-changing ‘wholesale’ value that applies to all kinds of power, and that value is dictated by the most costly power supply. As of late, this usually means cheaply generated renewable electrons value the identical as outrageously costly gas-generated ones. And so clients (and suppliers) do not lower your expenses by shopping for inexperienced energy. We have lengthy been calling for this to alter. Here is Octopus CEO Greg Jackson explaining how the system works.
Fairer power doesn’t simply imply greener power technology, or cheaper pricing, it means a fairer power system total
The factor is, our fossil-fuel-based power system isn’t simply unfair due to all of the carbon it spews into the ambiance – or as a result of fossil fuels are dearer. It’s additionally unfair in the best way it’s been organised.
When most of us take into consideration power, we image energy vegetation, pylons, and plug sockets. The factor is, power isn’t simply technological – it’s social – it impacts virtually each side of our lives.
Positive, it’s the explanation the lights come on, however not solely does power underpin the huge array of expertise that we depend on, it additionally has an enormous quantity to do with the best way our world is organised; from the design of our cities to the workings of our economies.
Power has been central to the transformation of society during the last 200 years. In a quest to beat the massive preliminary prices wanted to get an industrial power system off the bottom, and in a while, for ever higher, and extra environment friendly technology, the unique planners of the power grid pursued an evermore centralised system. At its coronary heart, they positioned big, soiled, powerplants. These, in flip, have been supported by subsidised railway networks and a spidery transmission grid to ship power to the economic cities and cities that grew up round them.
What’s extra, of their quest for centralisation, those that presided over the power system additionally more and more centralised management over that system, distancing its design and day-to-day operating from native decision-making processes. In different phrases, the power system we’ve inherited can also be unfair as a result of individuals barely have any say in the way it’s run. We’ve had little say in deciding what sorts of power are generated – leaving us uncovered to every thing from local weather points to bottlenecks in fossil gas provide, resulting in the gasoline disaster that we’re experiencing in the intervening time.
We haven’t had a lot of a say about the place power is generated both. For instance: traditionally, smaller, deprived communities have been pressured to place up with soiled power infrastructure, from coal, gasoline, and oil energy vegetation, to nuclear energy stations. These communities have had little option to climate air pollution and different dangers – which have turn out to be more and more normalised – whereas bigger, and infrequently wealthier communities in cities distant truly profit from the lion’s share of that power.
At the moment, the overwhelming majority of individuals have been lowered to passive power shoppers, with little or no probability to interact, affect and profit from the power system in significant methods. With regards to power consumption, for instance, the system has was a a technique road – shoppers use power, and the grid merely burns extra fossil fossil fuels to satisfy that demand – when it could possibly be participating power customers in smarter, greener methods.
Power: decentralised
When push involves shove, there are many alternative ways a renewable power future would possibly look. As Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Power Technology, explains:
A renewable power system has the potential to be simply as unfair as our present one – we have to construct a inexperienced power future that centres individuals, with equity at its very core.
What Zoisa means right here is that you can construct a renewable energy-based system that also repeats the unfairnesses of the previous. For instance, you can nonetheless have a centralised, ‘one-way’ inexperienced system, however merely swap out our big fossil gas turbines for equally big renewable ones. Positive, the chance of air pollution could be lowered, however individuals would stay distanced from choice making – unable to interact with or profit from power in significant methods.
The factor is, renewable turbines don’t must be centralised like fossil gas turbines do. The place it might have as soon as been troublesome (and undesirable) to have plenty of little, evenly distributed coal based mostly energy vegetation up and down the nation, that’s completely attainable with renewables. With this in thoughts, Octopus is pushing for a decentralised, democratic power system, with equity at its coronary heart.
The Octopus Collective
Central to the mission is Octopus’ new mannequin – The Octopus Collective, which is already turning power funding on its head. Right here, individuals have the chance to spend money on and part-own a neighborhood renewable generator – massively lowering the space between power customers and the power system. These communities then get cheaper energy when the wind is blowing or the solar is shining – permitting them to instantly profit from native technology.
It’s arduous to underestimate fairly how massive that is. The place governments and power traders as soon as needed to drive communities to just accept new power initiatives, 8,000 communities are already asking for a Octopus Collective-style ‘Fan Membership’ undertaking of their space.
To date, two are already up and operating, one in Yorkshire, and one in Wales, with communities already benefiting, and hundreds extra are within the pipeline.
Neighborhood power
In one other push for decentralised, democratic power, Octopus can also be supporting ‘neighborhood power’. Right here – reasonably than big soiled power turbines – individuals generate power themselves, supporting their communities within the course of.
Through their three way partnership with Midlands Cooperative – Younity – Octopus helps the vast majority of the UK’s native, neighborhood owned renewable turbines, shopping for the power they generate to produce clients on Octopus’ Neighborhood Energy Tariff.
Additionally they assist get new initiatives off the bottom, with a £1.5million revolving fund, and are making it simpler for patrons to spend money on neighborhood power initiatives by way of their payments too.
Making power extra participating
Renewable Power needn’t be such a ‘one-way road’ both. It’s completely attainable to construct an power system the place individuals can have interaction and profit in an entire vary of significant methods. Actually, in a renewable-led system, encouraging individuals to interact is significant for benefiting from our inexperienced electrons.
Because of renewable power, we lastly face the prospect of just about limitless clear, inexperienced technology – however we now have to work with the pure world, not towards it. In different phrases, we now have to have the ability to line up our power utilization with the provision of renewables, being attentive to when the solar shines and the wind blows – utilizing extra power when they’re considerable, and fewer when they’re scarce. Partaking power customers is one approach to make this a actuality.
With that in thoughts, Octopus aren’t simply pushing for a democratic renewable power system the place strange persons are nearer to produce – we’re additionally opening up avenues for individuals to interact in power in methods the place everyone advantages.
Good Tariffs
Octopus’ sensible import tariffs, like Agile, Go, and Clever Octopus are the UKs very first, designed to reward clients with cheaper charges after they use power in ways in which line up with the provision of renewables. Final yr, Octopus’ sensible tariff clients did as a lot because the UK’s largest power storage programs to assist take advantage of renewable power, and saved a reasonably penny within the course of.
Encouraging house power technology
Octopus additionally provides the UK’s first sensible ‘export’ tariff – OutgoingOctopus. Which means these with house power technology – like photo voltaic panels – and/or house power storage, are incentivised to promote their power again to the grid when renewables are scarcer, and might profit from larger costs on the similar time.
Right here, Octopus is hitting two birds with one stone. Permitting individuals to take advantage of out of their house photo voltaic panels additional encourages decentralised technology, whereas giving individuals extra alternatives to interact with the power system and profit within the course of.
Good Trials
On the similar time, Octopus have been operating innovative trials to empower and reward clients to collectively change power use to cut back our reliance on fossil fuels. For instance, earlier in 2022, Octopus ran the Massive Soiled Flip Down trial, rewarding individuals for ‘turning down’ their power utilization at a degree when power was in particularly excessive demand, that means that the Nationwide Grid didn’t must depend on as many soiled fossil gas turbines.
The trial was so profitable that the Nationwide Grid are going to roll it out throughout the UK so extra individuals can profit. By participating with power on this method, it is anticipated individuals will have the ability to save £100 a yr, whereas concurrently making the grid greener.
Classes from the power disaster
The present power disaster is placing big quantities of stress on individuals up and down the nation, however being so clearly rooted in our legacy power system – it’s additionally displaying us what so desperately wants to alter.
To information clients by way of these powerful occasions – Octopus has chosen to spend a whole bunch of thousands and thousands on subsidising payments, eschewing income within the course of, they usually’re additionally pushing for expanded authorities help. Whereas one firm can’t repair all the disaster alone, Octopus are working to assist individuals all over the place by taking aside the system that uncovered us to this specific shock, changing it with a greener, smarter, decentralised, democratic power system that may cut back the opportunity of crises like these sooner or later.
Nonetheless, when push involves shove, there are a lot of alternative ways our green-energy future might look. As we transfer away from our outdated, unfair, soiled power system, it’s clear that there’s nonetheless tonnes of labor to do in relation to serious about how the prices and the advantages are shared in no matter system comes subsequent. Even with renewables on the centre – the clear, inexperienced, sensible system of the longer term should ensure that persons are protected, represented, and empowered, it doesn’t matter what crops up.