The UK faces the threat of rolling blackouts in just two years as our energy security fails, and it is engineers who have to provide the solution
The UK’s power demand is falling, but our capacity is falling faster
global television audience of 108m looked on as the lights went out on one of the world’s highest profile sporting events
last month. The 2013 Super Bowl was halted for more than 30 minutes in the New Orleans Superdome. Could that chastening experience be a taste of things to come? At last year’s CIBSE Annual Lecture, the
threat of power shortages in the UK was raised by Ofgem chief executive, Alistair Buchanan. He said the UK will have a safety margin of just 4% in available power by 2015, raising the likelihood of rolling blackouts during peak demand. ‘The UK’s power demand is falling, but
our capacity is falling faster,’ he said. A quarter of our current energy capacity
is due to be decommissioned in the next seven years and we are well behind schedule to produce 30% of future power from renewables by 2020.
And what of nuclear? The programme to build new capacity was already well behind schedule before Centrica’s recent announcement that it was pulling out of the Hinkley Point project. Our energy future is uncertain, but one
4 CIBSE Journal March 2013
thing we do know is that the cost of power will continue to rise. Average energy bills are predicted to increase by 30% in the next decade to match the increased investment required to modernise the National Grid. However, we will start running out of energy long before that project is complete. The Energy Bill – currently making its
troubled way through parliament – is looking for long-term solutions, but we need quick, low-cost solutions to stave off the looming crisis. That means dramatically reducing energy demand and that’s our job. This is not a task for government – politicians don’t understand the detail of energy management. How could they? Former CIBSE ASHRAE Graduate of
the Year Angela Malynn put it eloquently: ‘I have a problem with people saying government should do this and do that. ‘The government can’t install anything.
We are engineers and it is up to us to show them the answers and demonstrate how to deliver sustainable buildings.’ For clients, the building services industry
is increasingly the ‘go to’ place for energy management solutions during continuing austerity and the need to reduce overheads. Monitoring actual performance of buildings allows managers to compare results with best practice and industry benchmarks – then they can set about putting things right. The CIBSE Building Performance Awards seek to reflect this new reality by rewarding
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