National Grid Summer Outlook - The Need For Storage

National Grid's Summer Outlook Report hit the mainstream news with plenty of commentators failing to understand how the system can be both under- and over-supplied. Of course the summer over-supply issue is all about flexibility and predictability. As Edie notes, there may be a need for some wind generation to be "curtailed" at certain times in the summer. This all points up the need for more storage - but where is that going to come from with affordable economics?

IPPR: Set up an Energy Company for London

Mildly confused of SW Surrey, here. I spotted this post from Edie which suggests that the IPPR is calling upon the next London mayor to set up an energy company performing a supplier role. However, looking at what I think is the original here, it seems that it's more a distribution company that the IPPR think is required. That makes more sense - having the energy equivalent of TfL to ensure the infrastructure is there to enable a true distributed energy solution be available to London. Edie notes that two cities - Nottingham and Bristol - have both recently set up energy companies. These are very clearly supply companies with a social target of providing lowest cost energy to consumers.

Densification

I missed this in the budget - not surprising as I admit to paying little attention over and above what is is likely to have an immediate effect on me and mine. However, this push for densification as reported in Building 4 Change has some merits - if it can be managed properly. And there's the rub. We all know what a disaster much of the high rise building in the second half of the last century has been. Planners somehow manage to forget human and social elements and err on the side of a soulless close-packing model. This has put me in mind of the vibrant communities that developed around Victorian working-people's terraces. Is this a model to reconsider - low rise but cheek-by-jowl?