Earlier this month, I reported how Britain has recently become a net exporter of electricity to France and has increased imports from Holland. Since writing that post, a more worrying trend has become apparent. Shifting our imports from France to The Netherlands has meant we are importing more carbon intensive electricity than we are generating at home.
Earlier this month, I reported how Britain has recently become a net exporter of electricity to France and has increased imports from Holland. Since writing that post, a more worrying trend has become apparent. Shifting our imports from France to The Netherlands has meant we are importing more carbon intensive electricity than we are generating at home.
As a reminder, there are four subsea electricity cables (interconnectors) between Britain and her neighbours. Two connect Britain and Ireland, one runs to France and the other to The Netherlands. These allow for both the import and export of electricity as prices and energy demand changes. They are likely to stay post #Brexit!
The National Infrastructure Commission thinks interconnectors are vital to UK electricity security and for reducing bills. Power engineers see interconnectors as part of a fleet of mechanisms (alongside energy storage and demand side response) to help balance our electricity system as more renewable energy is added. The premise is that Britain will export electricity on windy or sunny days whilst importing it from neighbours on calm and dark days.
Over the last 12 months, our interconnector flows tell an interesting story. There has been a swing from mostly importing from France to importing from Holland and Ireland. You can see this on the chart below.
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The challenge to the notion that interconnectors are low carbon is that, unlike France with her vast array of Nuclear power stations, The Netherlands and Ireland are heavily reliant on fossil fuels. According to the World Bank, 82% of the electricity generated in 2013 in The Netherlands came from fossil fuels. The CIA reports that in 2013, Ireland generated 72% of her electricity from gas and coal.
Our Dutch electricity imports are more carbon intensive than our own electricity!
If Britain is not careful, changing imports away from low carbon countries could make meeting carbon goals even more challenging. My next chart shows the carbon intensity of electricity imports for each of the last 13 months reflecting the carbon intensity of Ireland and The Netherlands. Imports have more than doubled in carbon intensity over the period. Ouch!
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In 2016, British Electricity had a carbon intensity of less than 300 grams of CO2 equivalent per kWh generated. In January 2017, our imports were 40% more carbon intensive than our own electricity.
Britain is not choosing to import the lowest carbon electricity from France, and is instead importing high carbon electricity from the Netherlands and Ireland.
There is a small silver lining to those interested in how low carbon British electricity is. The volume of imports has more than halved over the past 13 months. That means that the total CO2 emitted by imported electricity has actually fallen. But they have only fallen by 20%. To restate that, Britain reduced net imports by 50% but the carbon emissions only fell by 20%!
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Over the next 10 years, interconnectors will be added linking Britain to Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Belgium. There will also be new cables to France and Ireland. As these are constructed, it is the carbon value of the electricity they carry which will need to be accounted if we are to meet our goals.
Some might argue that imports are good when they offset coal generation which is far more carbon intensive. However, according to this analysis, statements about imports replacing coal are like saying “I am going on a diet by eating one burger a day instead of two”.
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There is evidently misconception that Britain imports low carbon electricity from France. Clearly, a closer inspection of the data is required to ensure that if we are to import it is to help and not hinder our carbon goals.
