Political Electricity – the dark side of power

We take electricity for granted. But we’re in the middle of a major revolution in how we generate and access electric power. All this is happening as electricity in the digital age becomes ever more crucial to everything from communication to transport to national defence. It’s now “the lifeblood of modern civilisation” says energy expert Professor Michael Grubb. And electricity – who has it, how reliable it is, and what it costs – is becoming very political.

Most people only realise how important electricity has become when they suddenly lose it. For those lucky enough to be able to flick a switch and rely on the light coming on or the radio bursting into life, a power cut is a rare event. When it happens it’s usually short-lived and by the time we’ve found the torch it’s all back on again.

But when the power went off in Lancaster in December 2015, it stayed off for several days. Flooding had knocked out the electricity supply. Not only did the lights go out but cash machines stopped working, debit card readers failed. Students at Lancaster University were dumbfounded when the mobile phone network went down – mobiles could not be charged, the Wi-Fi went off, and social media was replaced by knocking on doors to try and find out what was going on. It was, said one resident, like living in a strange bubble: “Everything you could normally rely on, you couldn’t rely on.”

For some, the situation was really serious. The local hospital had emergency generators, but in one Lancaster care home almost everything crucial failed. It was mid-winter – the home had no lighting, cooking or heating, and no lifts; even the fire alarm stopped working and the back door would no longer lock as the electrical systems were linked to it. When they did manage to hire a generator, the home found it did not have the right specialist connector to plug it in.

So many of our key systems for daily life are now electricity-dependent. And that extends right up to national defence – analysts have concluded that the electricity system is our most vulnerable key system, and would be an obvious first target in a future conflict. But the electricity revolution underway is about much more than just one-off catastrophes like cyberattack or flooding. It’s about how the system can cope day-to-day with all the new kinds of electricity generation, and the new demands for power for everything from digital devices to mass electric cars.

The way we interact with energy grids may soon be changing.

Although our electricity system is in many ways a privatised and decentralised enterprise, politicians still spend much time and energy worrying about getting the blame "if the lights go out". They’ve been organising special capacity markets to try and ensure adequate future power. But one of the difficulties is that no-one’s sure exactly how much electricity we’ll need – especially when, say, electric cars become the norm. When we all come home from work and charge our electric cars at the same time, are we going to overload the grid?

Electric divisions?

Nowadays demand is much less predictable, and the grid has become two-way, with lots more suppliers of electricity – including individuals with solar panels – feeding power in. Our power grids will need to become more sophisticated and resilient to cope with this daily pressure, as well as threats posed by natural disaster or cyber-attack – which will all be costly. It’s a huge and vital national infrastructure project – little talked about but arguably more important than any high speed rail link, motorway or runway.

“There’s a spectrum,” says electrical engineer Professor Roger Kemp, who witnessed those Lancaster power cuts. “At one end of the spectrum you have efficiency, and at the other end you have resilience. And I don’t think we know where we want to be on this spectrum.”

Should those who will make more use of the modern grid pay more? Professor Dieter Helm, who recently completed a major energy review for the government, believes we will pay less for electricity itself as renewables and other forms of generation become cheaper. But we may also need something like the BBC licence fee – a flat rate charge – to raise enough money to pay for a modern grid.

With electricity becoming ever more crucial, the danger is wealthier individuals and companies may try to opt out of communal provision and its cost, paying for their own back-up. If you live in a detached house in the suburbs you’re going to be in a better position to manage any hiccups in the electricity supply. But if you’re living in a tower block with scant space and strict rules, you’re not going to have a petrol generator.

Others are looking for new kinds of imaginative communal solutions in the new electricity world. The Netherlands is ahead of the curve, with housing developers integrating solar panels into housing developments as well as electric car charging points. One car parking space is allocated for 10 households and rent includes access to a car club. In that way, says geographer Harriet Bulkeley, “the housing developers are becoming part of the electricity grid.”

So what do we need to keep the lights and everything else on in the future – across society? Our basic ambition should be reliable, affordable energy for everyone, but politicians often act only after a big crisis has highlighted the problem. The future for all of us is about power in the widest sense and whether we have the understanding as well as the energy to plan it well.

For more on how electricity is political, listen to Analysis.