Carbon Trust calls for innovative, integrated smart energy system for Scotland

In a new report, the Carbon Trust called on the Scottish Government to create a "joined up energy strategy", within which smart technology would be used to transfer excess renewable power generation across to the country's heating and transportation needs. This could guarantee energy security and Scottish jobs, but also boost Scottish expertise in a way that could be exported internationally, it said.

The Carbon Trust said that "targeted innovation" was needed if Scotland was to achieve its vision. It said that this should concentrate on driving down supply chain costs, developing energy storage and district heating models, and using the national roll-out of 'smart meters' as an opportunity to engage and encourage consumers to take more control over their energy usage and costs.

Nicholas Shenken, an expert in energy industry commercial contracts at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the report was interesting not only because it highlighted Scotland's "undoubted potential in terms of its capacity to lead on a smarter, more integrated energy system", but also because "the concepts it identifies have a much wider application into the UK - and, indeed, internationally".

"What we're talking about here is the need for the evolution of the 'smart city', and that's something we're advising on more and more as the public and private sectors begin to see the wide range of benefits available here - not only of a holistic approach to efficiencies in electricity, heat and transport, but also of the value – both social and financial – in the data which a 'smart' approach can produce," he said.

"We are working with cities which have already begun the smart journey – Glasgow and Peterborough being just two examples - but the remaining potential is huge, and not only for those cities which are ahead of the game," he said.

The Carbon Trust began by providing some brief analysis of Scotland's progress towards its target of meeting 30% of overall energy demand from renewable sources by 2020. Legally-binding targets set by the Scottish Government require that 30% figure to include 100% of electricity demand, 11% of non-electrical heat demand and 10% of transport energy. The Carbon Trust found that although Scotland was well on its way to meeting the electricity demand target, progress towards the heat and transport targets needed to "accelerate significantly".

Heat and transport uses account for over 70% of total energy consumption in Scotland, and the country currently has the highest heating demand per household and the highest levels of fuel poverty in the UK, despite having the highest offshore renewable energy resource in Europe, according to the Carbon Trust. Some of these difficulties exist because Scotland's electricity system is one of the least interconnected in Europe, which is a problem because of the country's low overall population density but high urban population density.

The strategy proposed by the Carbon Trust would better connect the three energy 'vectors' of power, heat and transport. This would involve a move away from a curtailment strategy, involving the active management of renewables to reduce their generation and help balance the grid, and instead transferring the excess to heat and transport or even creating new export opportunities. This would require innovative storage and transfer solutions, with excess electricity transferred either directly or by using hydrogen as a carrier, it said.

The integrated strategy would require a more holistic approach to infrastructure planning, based around enhancing opportunities for local power, heat and transport demand and generation solutions; and new policy and market mechanisms to incentivise and reward innovative, decentralised smart energy solutions. Investment would also be needed to support the commercialisation and full-scale roll-out of this innovation, the report said.