Headstar Report On Energy Challenges Facing UK Published

'The Power Of Information', the report of the meeting, has just been published, written by Headstar as part of an exclusive agreement the company has with Pitcom.

The meeting heard Richard Carter, Director of Chemicals and Resilience at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), describe how the UK must manage an increasingly diverse and complex range of energy sources, including imports of liquefied natural gas, and gas delivered from pipelines via our European neighbours.

We will also depend more on micro- generation and renewable energy sources such as wind and wave power, said Carter. The spread of digital technologies makes us increasingly energy-hungry, said Gavin Jones, Energy and Utilities Industry Leader, IBM Northern Europe. Our energy needs are also changing because of new practices such as home-working, he said.

Businesses will monitor the power consumption of their equipment and buildings more closely, and energy suppliers will introduce new tariffs to promote more efficient energy use, he said. Businesses will use smart devices that take only the minimum amount of power needed to function, and switch on and off to make the best use of new tariffs, said Jones.

Everything relies on data and communication systems both to supply information about what is happening, and to give commands, the meeting heard. Energy distribution needs a resilient communications infrastructure, such as fixed and mobile wireless networks, microwave, fibre and possibly satellite communications, attendees were told.