Today’s National Grid Winter Outlook sets out possible scenarios resulting from the ongoing global gas shortage. While outlining risk in this way doesn’t mean that a scenario will happen – and no interruption to energy supply is expected – it does further stress the need to reduce our demand for gas in both the short and long-term.
Stew Horne, head of policy at Energy Saving Trust, said:
“In the short-term, the UK Government needs to consider how to reduce energy demand this winter to increase energy security, lower bills and promote decarbonisation for the long term.
“We’ve seen examples across Europe of demand reduction working in practice, many of which are targeted at public buildings and some energy intensive businesses. The European Commission recently announced their plans to reduce peak demand by 5% across the EU Member States.
“In the UK, we expect to see organisations model the impact of a similar reduction and would welcome consideration of similar measures to improve energy security.
“The cheapest energy is the energy we don’t use and there is much the government should do to help households to lower demand, primarily through improving the energy efficiency of homes.
“To enable this, we need to see the creation of an accessible, national, impartial and tailored energy advice service that will empower people to take action to save money on home energy bills.
“We cannot afford to wait. There are still opportunities for fast action and financial commitment this year to permanently reduce energy demand to both cut costs and carbon emissions, while keeping people warm and comfortable.”