Veolia warns of emerging energy crisis

The Keeping the lights on report found that two thirds (68%) of energy managers are concerned about energy security and reliability.

By 2050, the UK’s electricity supply is set to increase by 50%.

Veolia has therefore urged organisations to rethink their energy policies to meet carbon neutral targets and create a balanced grid that can cope with demand and rapidly changing situations.

This will come from de-centralised power with smaller low carbon and green energy supplies, plus energy storage controlled by predictive control systems.

The report predicted that electric and district heating will replace all traditional domestic gas boilers in new homes.

It also found that our increasing reliance on the cloud for internet access, data storage and security and power, meant more data centres will be needed.

These typically use lots of energy, with the report predicting that if the UK mirrors this trend, data centres will use the equivalent power of more than 16 million homes.

Richard Kirkman, chief technology and innovation officer at Veolia UK and Ireland, said: “We are now deep into a recognised climate crisis inextricably linked to a looming energy crisis.

“The Climate Emergency is happening in front of our eyes and Generation Zero, the people growing up and future citizens and customers, are expecting action.

“Recent events highlighted in this new report indicate there is every reason to be concerned about business continuity and ensuring uninterrupted energy supply comes with a net zero carbon footprint.”

Veolia has called for government to remove uncertainty for businesses with a clear road map providing confidence that renewables are worthwhile investments.

This is following the scrapping of support schemes such as Feed-In-Tariffs, LECs and Triads.

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