Royal Geographical Society - Rescaling energy security in the UK

PDF - Royal Geographical Society Media Release 3rd July 2012

Shale Gas unlikely to be the solution to the UK's future energy needs

Over recent years the UK has become ever more dependent on the import of gas to supply our energy needs, presenting risks for our future energy security.

In a presentation to the annual international conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in Edinburgh, Prof Bradshaw will put forward the view that a ‘perfect storm’ of multiple failures is developing around UK energy policy.

Commenting on his research Professor Bradshaw said: “There is a high degree of risk and uncertainty associated with every element of the UK’s energy strategy – whether that’s energy efficiency, renewable energy, or carbon capture and storage. “Coming together these could result into an ever greater reliance of gas, at a time when its price is likely to increase because of growing demand from countries including China and India.”

Some commentators present shale gas extraction as the solution to these future gas and energy security issues. Yet, Professor Bradshaw does not agree, commenting that significant levels of exploitation are unlikely for many years, due to substantial logistical and environmental challenges. 

“Shale gas is unlikely to be a game-changer in the UK” concluded Professor Bradshaw.

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Rescaling energy security in the UK

Abstract
Energy security debates have gained increased political prominence in the UK over the past few years. Public interest in the issue has been accompanied by a wide range of academic studies focusing on the political and economic risks associated with the UK’s future security of supply. However, the mainstream understanding of energy security is predicated on a particular construction of scale and space, emphasizing the challenges that national-level institutional actors may face in obtaining a stable and reliable source of energy over a given timescale. Downstream issues are rarely considered in the context of such debates, despite the fact that the boundaries between energy production and consumption are becoming increasingly fluid and entangled.

This session seeks to challenge discourses about the primacy of national, supply-side issues in the articulation of energy security in the UK, opening up the possibility of treating this issue with the aid of a multiscalar framework that operates both at the supra-national and household level. Such an understanding of scale allows issues of local energy planning and household-level energy vulnerability to be also considered within the context of energy security, while opening the path for incorporating the environmental, economic and social implications of climate change mitigation measures within the same context.

In a broader sense, the session seeks to explore the potential contribution of geographers to energy studies in terms of building 'alternative' understandings of scale in the interpretation of energy security. Building on several promising debates at previous Annual Conferences, our aim is to further the contribution of geographers to energy research, focusing especially on the unpacking of the social production of scale, infrastructure and power in the conceptualization of energy security.

Papers

Globalising UK natural gas security

Michael Bradshaw (University of Leicester)

This paper reports on the initial findings of a research project on global gas security that is being funded by the UK Energy Research Centre. It explores how declining domestic production from the UK continental shelf, combined with the consequences of the recent ‘dash for gas’ are resulting a growing level of gas import dependence. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part charts the rise of gas in the UK’s energy mix and maps the associated increase in import dependence. The second part examines the contemporary UK ‘gas balance’ and identifies potential threats to UK gas security. The third part the paper considers the sources of uncertainty that are resulting from conflicting views about the role of natural gas in the UK’s transition to a low carbon energy system. The paper concludes by identifying the key ‘global issues’ that are likely to shape the future of UK natural gas security. 

Energy security and the EU: The contradictory materialities of multi-level hydrocarbon governance

Stefan Bouzarovski (University of Birmingham)

This paper explores the geopolitical and material implications of the increasing securitization of energy policy at the level of the European Union. Using a multi-level governance framework, I critically examine the relationship between particular policy initiatives at the EU level, and the material landscapes of hydrocarbon flows across the continent (including the UK). My principal argument is that the securitization of EU energy policy is creating a new infrastructural regime, associated with the material self-perpetuation of particular types of socio-technical networks, and the erosion of decision-making power away from traditional state actors. This process is creating a range of tensions that problematize EU member states’ efforts to build a technocratic consensus around decarbonization efforts. It also points to the need for expanding the conceptual lens of energy governance theorization onto a wider range of agentic sites and institutional relations.

Zero carbon housing and the emergence of meso-scale energy provision

Andrew Karvonen (University of Manchester)

Developers, designers, and builders are increasingly producing zero carbon housing projects in the UK with a combination of low-energy strategies including tight built envelopes, low-energy heating systems and appliances, and on-site renewable energy systems to satisfy the stringent requirements of the Code for Sustainable Homes. Many medium-to large-scale developments are also introducing district combined heat and power networks to provide renewable energy to multiple households. These district systems are favoured for their attractive economics of scale with respect to renewable energy generation but they also introduce a new meso-scale of infrastructure that introduces a new scale between the macro (existing centralised energy networks) and micro (on-site microgeneration technologies).

In this paper, I examine the emergence of meso-scale infrastructure networks as a means to realise the English low-carbon housing targets. While the notion of district energy networks is not new in itself, its application in England represents a novel configuration of energy provision and use with unforeseen consequences. The scale of these district systems inadvertently creates archipelagos of autonomous, low-energy housing without addressing the impacts on residents both inside and outside the network boundaries. In addition, the district systems introduce novel issues related to fuel supply, daily maintenance, metering, and ownership that reconfigure the chain of energy service provision. Finally, it is unclear how the widespread rollout of these meso-scale networks will affect the centralised networks they replace. To illustrate these issues, I will use examples from contemporary housing developments and reflect upon the significant implications of reconfiguring the English domestic energy landscape.

Regulating energy security through the diffusion of innovation – A community perspective

Colin Nolden (University of Exeter)

At the ‘community’ scale, energy security has fairly recently gained political importance in the UK. Huge interest in the incentives provided by the Feed-in Tariff, and to a lesser extent by the Renewables Obligation, reflects both the potential for unlocking local investment potential in energy supplies and the desire to reduce the dependency on increasingly volatile energy supply chains. However, the decentralisation not only of generation capacity but also of benefits associated with the energy generation requires a more strategic and wide ranging framework to enable the public to tap into the development of local supply security and the localisation of energy related income streams.

This paper analyses the consequences of risk and uncertainty relating to energy policy and regulation and the consequences of having a planning system that is rather unfavourable towards certain scales of onshore renewables. At the same time, the UK is running the risk of retaining a comparatively small amount of its expenditure on the diffusion of renewable energy technologies both nationally and locally. In order to appreciate the potential and possibilities, comparisons are drawn to other European countries, particularly to Germany, in light European energy market integration.