Electricity

How to keep the lights on

Stephen Richard — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 15:07:32 +0000

How to keep the lights on Stephen Richard Thu, 10/28/2021 - 16:07

Author or Creator

Common Weal

How to we 'keep the lights on' in an independent Scotland?

How do we make sure Scotland's electricity supply is secure on independence?

There are three bits of the energy system – generating the power, distributing the power to households and businesses and selling power to customers. In the UK this is all privatised and it must be assumed that generation and retail of energy will still be privatised on independence. But it doesn't make any sense to keep the distribution of power privatised because this is an issue for national security and the UK is the only country in Europe that has privatised distribution. While there are all sorts of very good reasons for reforming the energy system after independence, that is for future governments. But securing distribution should be part of the transition planning.

So how do we make sure the electricity keeps flowing?

It's not just electricity through the National Grid, it's gas through the gas grid as well. Both are overseen and managed by what is called a Transmission System Operator (TSO). At the moment this is split up between a few different private companies across the UK but in Scotland it is the responsibility of Scottish Power Networks. It should be converted into a Scottish TSO, but the technical infrastructure and personnel are all in place so this is just a transition to a publicly-owned model. Other that than that, Scotland generates more than enough electricity to meet domestic needs and until policy changes will remain part of the UK energy market. With gas the same applies – purchasing gas and distributing it via the gas grid won't be any different after independence.

Keywords

Electricity

Gas

Power supplies

The key to powering an independent Scotland’s future. Open minds on indepencence #16

Stephen Richard — Sun, 10 Oct 2021 09:59:06 +0000

The key to powering an independent Scotland’s future. Open minds on indepencence #16

Primary Author or Creator

The National

Stephen Richard Sun, 10/10/2021 - 10:59

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Believe in Scotland

Date Published

Fri, 04/06/2012 - 12:00

A real Green New Deal for Scotland

Stephen Richard — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 08:48:16 +0000

A real Green New Deal for Scotland

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/14/2021 - 09:48

Alternative Published Date

2020

Category

Climate change

Type of Resource

Video

Fast Facts

The world is under threat from a series of approaching environmental crises and Scotland is a country which still has enduring social failures like poverty and inequality. Many people are pessimistic. But both can be tackled if we take them head-on and plan for them – which is what Common Weal did with The Common Home Plan, the world’s first comprehensive Green New Deal. It is a reason for optimism and hope. It is a costed proposal for how to avert the environmental crises, transform Scotland and get the nation ready for the era to come. You can find out much more and get copies of the books here.

Our Common Home. video 1:38 minutes

More details

The following is a very quick summary of some of the key action points from the plan:

Buildings: All new construction must be energy-neutral and have at least 60-year lifespan | Renovate rather than demolish | Set up National Housing Company and insulate all existing homes to 90 per cent efficiency | Make all construction materials organic or recycled | Make all public buildings ‘energy positive’ | Require businesses to achieve high heating efficiency but provide subsidies for small businesses | All electrical goods must have AAA efficiency rating
Heating:Set up an Energy Development Agency to plan the shift to renewable heating | Set up a National Energy Company to install a national District Heating System with renewable heat generation | Install renewable heating in off-gas-grid houses | Invest in training the workforce | Establish a Heat Supply Act to make this happen
Electricity: The Energy Development Agency plans the move to a zero- carbon electricity | Set up a National Energy Company to build the generation and energy storage | Build electrolysis plants to generate hydrogen for energy storage | Nationalise and upgrade the National Grid with local storage and ‘smart grid’ technologies | Gradually take existing generation capacity into public ownership | Use an Industrial Strategy to develop domestic supply chains for all of this | End the extraction of oil and gas in Scotland
Transport: Create a National Transport Company to plan the transition to carbon-free travel | Use better planning to reduce the need for car journeys | Begin installing charging and refueling infrastructure for zero-carbon vehicles | Replace or retrofit existing public transport to be zero-carbon | Commission more hydrogen ferries | Develop an air transport strategy
Food: Set up a National Food Agency to plan a transition to a regenerative food system | Move to an agro ecological system for Scotland’s food production | Implement a strategy to greatly reduce food waste | Invest in new forms of food growing like vertical farming | Shorten supply chains by supporting new food processing businesses in Scotland | Strengthen regulation of the food industry and redesign farming subsidy regimes to encourage agroecology | Use pricing mechanisms to embed environmental externalities in the cost of food | Pursue import substitution to reduce the environmental impact of unnecessary imports | Institute a legal Right to Food to ensure that changes to the food system do not harm the access to healthy nutrition of anyone in Scotland | Consider implementing a Universal Basic Income
Land: Set up a National Land Agency to oversee the management of Scotland’s land | It should then deliver a target of 50 per cent reforesting | Introduce a process of National Land Planning to zone rural land for specific purposes | Strengthened regulation and reporting on land management | Train roughly 20,000 additional land managers | Take direct action to diversify land ownership in Scotland | Develop a rural industrial strategy | Allocate fishing quotas on the basis of environmental performance | Implement Scotland’s water shortage plan
Resources: Set up a National Resources Agency to oversee the move to zero waste | Develop a circular economy | Set a hierarchy for resource use: deconsumerise → dematerialise → simplify → share → reuse → remanufacture → compost → and only then recycle | Create a national waste collection and reprocessing service | Use ‘Producer Responsibility’ to make manufacturers responsible for the full lifecycle of the goods they produce | Use ‘externality taxes’ to ensure the price of goods reflects their true lifecycle costs | Invest in a wide range of initiatives like National Deposit Return schemes, container standardisation and tool libraries to optimise resource use | Ban single-use plastic | Regulate to discourage and then end the use of most single-use materials | Set up a National Consumer Agency to monitor all products, require them to be manufactured along circular economy lines and ban particularly harmful materials altogether

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/big-ideas/a-real-green-new-deal-for-scotland/

Keywords

Language English