Decentralising London's power supply?

Last week, as Iain Dale pointed out, London became a national embarassment when an increase of just 5% in energy requirement caused power cuts on two different days in the West End. I'm not quite sure what that says about a city which plans to host the summer Olympics in 2012, but it should be a warning to politicians and businessmen alike that London's energy distribution is clearly in crisis, and our reliance on the grid presents a single point of failure in the system.

As some people might recall, I've written about decentralised energy a couple of time before, and that we should be addressing the so-called energy gap by reducing the 60% wastage that is inherent in the system. Whilst decentralisation on a national scale is desirable, it's only really acheivable if it can be proven to work on a large scale. The power cuts in London last week present an opportunity to have a genuine debate about how decentralisation can address the future of London's energy needs, and simultaneously show how it could be implementet nationwide.

A quick look at Woking Borough Council is the starting point for what ought to be the future shape of London's strategic energy (and also environmental) policy. Woking Council have been at the forefront of decentralised energy development. They now have a network of over 60 local generators, all powered by sustainable and/or renewable means which provide power, heat and cooling for Council buildings and social housing. Businesses in Woking town centre are also connected up to this local energy supply.

Decentralised energy has made Woking Council's electricity infrastructure over 99% self-sufficient. Which consequentially has kept energy bill statics for many years. This has been esepcially beneficial to those on smaller means who would otherwsie be hit by rising energy costs. What's more, the Coucnil has been able to cut its CO2 emmissions by nearly 80% since 1990 which is equivalent to 6 times the UK's Kyoto commitment in percentage terms.

This sort of model should be providing a blueprint for the future of London's energy policy. Whoever the Mayor might be, they should be seriously considering promoting a strategic energy policy which will work in partnership with each of the London boroughs to move towards greater decentralisation. By implementing a combination of solar, cogeneration, trigeneration, wind, fuel cells and even in some cases tidal power, the likelihood of power cuts due to the traditional grid failing would become a thing of the past.

For more information on Woking Council's acheivements click here