This summer, CEE postdoctoral researcher Cornelia Helmcke hosted ‘town halls’ across the Scottish Islands to explore the current constraints to the UK energy grid as experienced by islanders.
Orkney, Lewis, South Uist, Skye and Mull – all Scottish Islands of diverse landscapes and cultures facing similar energy challenges. To get to the root of these issues, Cornelia met with island community groups, energy experts, and enthusiasts to discuss the problems they face as electricity consumers and generators, and what future pathways they envision.
Many of the reported constraints can be directly linked to how the central UK power grid has been and continues to be enacted. It is commonly accepted within the relevant sectors and among experts that the national grid has been designed for a fossil fuel-powered infrastructure that channels energy from the economic centres to the ‘peripheries’ of the nation. However, the mode of generation has changed and will continue to require further change.
Orkney has over 500 domestic-scale wind turbines connected to the national grid. On calm days, Orkney likely relies on electricity coming from the mainland; during stormy days, it is likely that some turbine operators have to switch off their turbines to avoid overcharge. In any case, the locally produced energy cannot be locally consumed. Generators sell their energy to the grid and must repurchase it for consumption. As the buying price on the energy market is expensive on the islands (due to network charges), the selling price of electricity on the wholesale market is very low (due to an over-supply of energy on the islands). As the Scottish islands face the highest rates of fuel poverty in the UK, this market organisation is experienced as highly unjust.
Upgrading the central grid structure, for example, by installing a new subsea transmitter cable of higher capacity, increases island generation. However, communities on Lewis fear that they will continue not to see the profits as community groups must apply for a grid connection as commercial operators do on a first come, first served basis. Unsurprisingly, communities that rely on volunteers and donations do not have the same capacity as businesses and are likely to fail in securing a grid connection. More so, the increased grid capacity allows more energy to be exported at low wholesale prices – not improving local energy security.
The island town halls revealed these and other injustices connected to the grid while highlighting that the business-as-usual approach does not facilitate the transition to net zero – not on the islands and not as a nation. Instead of trying to accommodate an inherently decentral and variable technology into a static, central system, the system needs to be adapted and fit the new reality of energy generation. As transformation is not necessarily profitable in the short-term, it demands national regulations to guarantee that necessary steps are taken.
The results of the townhalls will be communicated as policy briefs and published in due time. Cornelia wishes to thank all participants for their invaluable contributions, and for sharing their insights and visions. She is also grateful to the Alliance who funded the project and made this work possible.
