Demand and Energy Security

Assessing Energy Security in a Low-Carbon Context: The Case of Electricity in the UK

“…This supports the extensive literature which has previously mentioned these co-benefits (e.g. Adelle et al 2009;Berk et al 2006;Froggatt and Levi 2009;Greenpeace 2010a;Hoggett et al 2013;Pye et al 2014) and suggests that this is one of the main things which occurs to stakeholders when they think of how best to improve energy security. Again, it is interesting to note that stakeholders were not informed that the three Transition Pathways differentiate significantly in their levels of overall energy demand.…”

“…For instance, pursuing energy efficiency and demand reduction measures would reduce the amount of energy we use, thereby for example reducing GHG emissions whilst reducing the risk of physical depletion of resources, and potentially even reducing energy costs for consumers (Adelle et al 2009;Berk et al 2006;Froggatt and Levi 2009;Greenpeace 2010a;Hoggett et al 2013;Pye et al 2014). On the supply side, it is argued that a greater share of renewable energy sources (RES) in the energy mix would improve energy security by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and increasing the geographical dispersion of energy supply resources; moreover, a portfolio using several different types of RES would likely improve diversity (Adelle et al 2009;Berk et al 2006;Brown and Huntingdon 2008;Diesendorf 2011;Froggatt and Levi 2009;Johansson et al 2014;Månsson 2015;Wicks 2009).…”

“…The most important issue to the respondents seemed to be the potential co-benefits of measures to reduce demand. For example, increasing attention to the demand side can in theory improve reliability, availability, affordability and sustainability, ideas which are reflected in the literature (see for example Adelle et al 2009;Berk et al 2006;Froggatt and Levi 2009;Greenpeace 2010a;Hoggett et al 2013;Pye et al 2014). Similarly to the other themes covered in this section, there was no pattern which emerged between those respondents who spoke strongly in favour of the importance of the demand-side, and the type of organisation for which they work.…”

“…It is often suggested that energy efficiency can act as a win-win for all aspects of the energy trilemma, because it can improve the ability of supply to meet demand, can reduce costs for consumers, and can lower GHG emissions (Adelle et al 2009;Berk et al 2006;Froggatt and Levi 2009;Greenpeace 2010a;Hoggett et al 2013). It is interesting to note that only two respondents suggested including energy efficiency as an indicator in its own right.…”

“…Hoggett et al (2013) point out that increasing energy efficiency does not simply equal better energy security, because a disruption to supplies will affect energy services no matter what the level of energy efficiency; one way of looking at it is that a highly efficient economy will be less secure because each unit of energy is more valuable and therefore a loss of any one unit is more problematic. Moreover, there are many potential ways of measuring energy efficiency, each of which would have slightly different implications: for example, it could refer to energy intensity per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (EIA 2015c), energy intensity per unit of Purchasing Power Parity (Suehiro 2007), manufacturing output (or other sector output) per unit of energy used (Green and Zhang 2013), exergy (Gundersen 2011;Laitner 2013), or even the number and reach of policies to improve energy efficiency.…”