The SuperSmart Grid & Europe’s Electricity Story CONNECTED EMPOWERED CONNECTED = EMPOWERED The 60 second story 1 Contents 1 The 60 second story 2 2 Vision 4 3 Shift 7 4 Solution 11 5 Making it happen 19 The 60 second story VISION > SHIFT > • Electricity is the lifeblood of modern society, • Today’s grid makes the vital connections that it empowers almost all aspects of our lives empower our way of life, but as we transform our power system, they will need to be • In Europe we have an amazing opportunity transformed too to harness infinite sources of clean, renewable power • Renewables present two key challenges: the places that generate the most renewable • We will use renewable power to meet Europe’s power aren’t near the places where we use the surging electricity demands, drive economic most electricity; and we can’t control when the growth, and greatly reduce our dependence on wind blows or how much the sun shines fossil fuels • So how will we make renewable electricity • The SuperSmart Grid will connect us to reliable electricity? this future 2 CONNECTED = EMPOWERED The 60 second story The 60 second story SOLUTION > MAKING IT HAPPEN • The SuperSmart Grid will connect all of us to • Grid development must address legitimate Europe’s renewable energy future concerns about the impact it will have on communities, health and wildlife • ‘Super’ means the grid will reach far enough to connect enough renewable energy sources • Policy and technical ability must facilitate not to create a reliable energy supply right across hinder our renewable future, particularly when Europe it comes to necessary grid development • ‘Smart’ means the grid will enable us to • We must work together to ensure that the vital generate and use electricity more intelligently connections are in place to empower us today and into the future • The SuperSmart Grid is essential to Europe’s renewable future, so what is holding us back? • Because connected = empowered CONNECTED = EMPOWERED The 60 second story 3 Vision The transformation in the way that we produce EUROPE’S power will be matched by a transformation in the way we distribute it. With renewable generation RENEWABLE must come the renewables grid: a system that can bring Norwegian wind power to Italian homes, FUTURE solar power from Spain to cities in Germany; an intelligent system that can transport information Europe has vast and largely untapped sources as well as electricity, telling individuals and of renewable energy. From the sun-drenched appliances when power is most abundant and Spanish plains to the windy seas off northern least expensive. Scotland, this powerfully diverse continent has the capacity to meet its own surging energy needs This will be an international collaborative by mostly renewable means. enterprise that will enable Europe’s collective renewable energy future, providing clean, secure, By sourcing much more of our energy in this way, affordable and reliable electricity for all. we are liberated from a dependency on traditional fuels. We can cut huge amounts of carbon Delivering this transformation will require a emissions in a cost-effective way and make the genuinely ‘people powered’ revolution in which energy sector a driver of innovation, creating new enlightened consumers are actively engaged in industries and jobs across Europe. supporting a European energy system that is fit for In addition, if we expand our energy system the twenty-first century. beyond Europe’s borders, we have the chance to access more renewable resources whilst strengthening cooperation with our neighbours. P U YSTR B BY DESIGN T-PYLON T-PYLON THIS IS HOW OUR ENERGY SYSTEM WORKS GENERATE > CONNECT > Electricity is generated in fossil The grid distributes this The grid is managed by and nuclear power stations, and electricity from the power Transmission System Operators, from renewable sources like sources to the plug sockets in the people tasked with building wind, solar4 and CONNECTED tidal power. = EMPOWEREDour homes The and60 secondoffices. story and maintaining it. equipment, from washing machines to games EMPOWERED consoles, through the plug socket in the wall to the actual energy that brings them to life? BY ELECTRICITY The simple answer is the grid. Electricity empowers us. Everything from our first hot drink of the day to the bedside lamp we read WHEN WE PLUG IN OR SWITCH by at night requires an instant and constant supply ON WE BECOME AN INTEGRAL of electricity. CONNECTION IN AN AMAZING, Electricity powers our computers and our Internet COMPLEX AND INTERLINKED connections. It chills our beer and plays our ENERGY SYSTEM. favourite TV shows. It lights our football stadiums, amplifies our musicians, runs our hospitals and The electricity grid is a vast and complex network drives our trains. of transmission lines that connects the places where electricity is generated to the places where And it does all that at the flick of a switch. it is used. The grid delivers reliable electricity Electricity never runs out. Electricity is always to millions of plug sockets in millions of homes there. It is an indispensable yet often invisible and businesses every day, almost instantly. part of our day-to-day lives. We depend on it, When we plug in or switch on we become an but we rarely think about what it is, and where it integral connection in an amazing, complex and comes from. interlinked energy system. The best way to appreciate the significance and Grid operators are key players in ensuring the benefits of electricity is to imagine life without it. stability of this energy system. They’re responsible Life without lighting, travel and entertainment; for operating and building transmission lines and practically every aspect of our lives would be safeguarding everyone’s electricity supply. fundamentally compromised by its absence. The grid has been extremely successful at That’s why it is essential that we can guarantee empowering millions of people and businesses a safe, secure and reliable supply. How are we across Europe with a reliable supply of electricity. connected to the sources of our electricity? However this system faces new challenges as How do we make sure it arrives exactly where we begin to transform the ways in which we and when we need it? What links our electrical generate power. THIS IS HOW OUR ENERGY SYSTEM WORKS EMPOWER > Thanks to the grid, we can plug The grid’s connections empower into a reliable supply of electricity our lives and lifestyles. almost anywhere in Europe. CONNECTED = EMPOWERED The 60 second story 5 OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF RENEWABLES > Virtually unlimited resources, Available right > Mainly have to be harnessed where unlike traditional fuels which across Europe. they are found, unlike traditional are finite. fuels which can be transported People and businesses to where they are used for energy Most renewable energy can produce and even sell generation. sources, such as the wind, their own power using The power output is often variable. sun and tides, are free, renewable energy sources For example, it can depend on unlike traditional fuels which like solar panels. when the wind is blowing or sun will become increasingly is shining. expensive. Don’t contribute CHALLENGES to climate change. OPPORTUNITIES Shift It is no longer a question of ‘if’ we require A NEW POWER a shift to renewable energy, but how we will make it happen. A renewably-powered future is exciting, SYSTEM empowering and well within our grasp. Today in Europe, most electricity is produced The grid has a vital role to play in making from fossil fuels and nuclear. The continued it happen. dominance of traditional energy sources in Europe’s energy mix is fundamentally unsustainable. But things are changing. TRANSFORMING There are two main challenges: • Climate change THE GRID Fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide when they are A significant shift to renewable energy sources burned, which contributes to global warming. will transform Europe’s power system, making Our use of fossil fuels to power our electricity new demands of our existing grid system. generation is unsustainable; the 30 dirtiest Shifting to renewable energy generation isn’t power stations in Europe were responsible just a case of building more wind turbines and for 10 percent of all European Union carbon ‘slotting’ them into the grid. The grid that we dioxide emissions in 2006.1 currently use was designed to work mostly with • Security fossil fuels. Whilst it can accommodate some renewable energy sources into its infrastructure, The age of cheap fossil fuels is coming to accommodating enough to combat the joint an end. The future will see fossil fuel prices challenges of climate change and energy security rise as reserves become increasingly hard will require a more radical transformation. to access, and as the risk of environmental damage associated with extracting them This is because renewable energy sources are grows. Europe already imports a large fundamentally different to fossil and nuclear percentage of its fossil fuels and this number energy sources. Renewable energy is clean, will continue to rise over the coming years. secure and won’t run out. However, we are less able to influence where and when they generate Renewable energy sources are different. the power we need. OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF RENEWABLES Resources like solar, wind and tidal power are infinitely available, and they don’t emit carbon dioxide. A RENEWABLY-POWERED A power system that draws most, if not all, FUTURE IS EXCITING, of its energy from clean and free sources is a tremendous opportunity, but also a necessity if EMPOWERING AND WELL we are to empower Europeans whilst tackling WITHIN OUR GRASP. the twin challenges of climate change and energy security. 1 Dirty Thirty, WWF, 2007 CONNECTED = EMPOWERED Shift 7 For the grid, the shift from traditional to arrays in Greece and Italy.