The new head of the National Grid has said a “smart energy revolution” will help Britain avoid blackouts.
Executive director Nicola Shaw said innovations in technology will reduce the need to build new power stations.
She told BBC News that between 30% and 50% of fluctuations on the energy grid could be smoothed out if firms and households adjusted their demand at peak times.
The growth of renewable energies combined with technological innovations which allow people to control their household appliances remotely have helped people change their energy consumption, she said.
Ms Shaw told BBC News: “We are at a moment of real change in the energy industry. From an historic perspective we created energy in big generating organisations that sent power to houses and their businesses.
“Now we are producing energy in those places – mostly with solar power.”
She added: “People with solar power, with batteries, thinking about the way they use their power differently – so turning down their electricity use, air conditioning or something, at different times of the day – so that they get the energy at the times they need it at the most efficient price.
“All of that is a real revolution, it’s a smart energy revolution, it has changed the way we are thinking about energy across the country.”
Recommended for you
