measuring energy consumption
A party piece that always impressed visitors to a Welsh steelworks in the Sixties was
when the tour guide invited members of the audience to provide an ink signature that
was weighed in front of them on a laboratory balance. The point being made was that in
a plant whose annual output was measured in thousands of tonnes of steel bar, there
was a requirement to take measurements along the way with microscopic precision.
In this instance, a minute discrepancy in the But the government nevertheless saw fit to
carbon contents of a steel sample weighing a introduce the Carbon Reduction Commitment
few grams could render an entire batch virtu- (CRC) – re-branded in October 2009 as the
ally worthless. There was a precise and pre- Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Effi-
dictable relationship between the amount of ciency Scheme - as a means of prompting
carbon present and the engineering proper- large users of energy to reduce the amount of
ties of the finished bar. CO
The steelworks has long since closed: a
2
for which they are directly responsible.
How the Carbon Reduction Commitment is
combination of falling demand and lack of likely to operate has already been considered
competitiveness sealed its fate. A generation at length in this edition: we drew attention to
later, the measurement of carbon has assumed potential injustices in the way that it is being
infinitely greater significance in the politics implemented. As matters stand, the CRC will
of climate change than it ever did behind the affect large users which are not covered by
scenes in assessing the purity of steel. any of the other UK and European schemes
To be more precise, carbon is taken as a con- for capping energy usage.
venient shorthand for carbon dioxide. We are told By the time that the qualification year for
that the micro-management of CO
2
is funda- the CRC starts in April 2010, the UK will be
mental to the control of climate change. heading into a general election. On present
The arithmetic relationship between CO form, the odds are in favour of a change of
output and specific parameters of climatic
2
government.
conditions has yet to be established beyond As the current opposition at Westminster has
doubt. been supporting the principle of carbon capping,
Too much reliance on energy metering?
28
The Informed Executive
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