Lost in transmission: why upgrading the UK’s network should be top of the agenda

While the UK Government churns out strategies to meet its ambitions of leading the world on decarbonisation, it is failing to tackle a fundamental issue in the country’s energy network. Dominic Quennell, managing director of Enertechnos Energy, explains why energy losses shouldn’t be ignored

STATISTICS RECENTLY RELEASED BY THE UK GOVERNMENT CONFIRMED THE WORRYING AND WORSENING TREND THAT IS ENERGY LOSSES. IN 2017, POWER LOST IN THE UK TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS TOTALLED ENOUGH ENERGY TO POWER ALMOST SEVEN MILLION HOMES AT A STAGGERING COST OF £1.28BN. ENERGY AND MONEY IS BEING THROWN AWAY AT AN EVER-INCREASING RATE, HARMING THE ENVIRONMENT, HURTING CONSUMERS’ POCKETS, AND HAMPERING THE UK’S TRANSITION TOWARDS CLEAN, SMART ENERGY.


Transmission and distribution infrastructure is often overlooked and in desperate need of upgrading. The cabling that makes up the energy system is little changed from the inefficient cables installed by the Victorians, built for a bygone era when electricity travelled in one direction and to fewer end points. The result is one of the highest energy loss rates in the European Union, a problem that must be confronted if the UK is to be a world leader in clean energy.

Dr Marius Buchmann, senior energy economist at Jacobs University. Credit: Dr Marius Buchmann

/  While this record is no mean feat, energy losses are stalling the true impact these renewables could have  /

What are the immediate effects of these losses? 

Losing such a significant amount of energy as it moves from A to B through the network means much more energy has to be produced than is needed for consumption. The immediate impacts are twofold: consumer bills are driven up and unnecessary harm is caused to the environment.


We see extensive coverage of energy companies raising prices due to rising wholesale costs, but the contribution of losses to rising bills is rarely examined. The cost of generating more than we need is footed by customers and, put simply, customers are paying for energy that never reaches their homes.

/  While this record is no mean feat, energy losses are stalling the true impact these renewables could have  /

The government statistics that revealed losses had increased by 1.8% also included the headline figure that renewable energy generation had reached a record high of almost 30%. While this record is no mean feat, energy losses are stalling the true impact these renewables could have. As more power is required, the UK continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels. We are letting clean, green energy go to waste and using fossil fuels to make up the difference.


Astonishingly, losses make up 1.5% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. This accounts for a third of the carbon emissions the UK needs to cut in order to meet the government’s Carbon Budget target of reducing emissions to 80% of the level they were in 1990.


It is imperative that losses in the UK’s energy network are tackled to make the progress we need on climate change.

/  A staggering amount of the extra demand the UK will need to fuel the electric vehicle revolution is already being produced  /

Undermining UK energy ambitions: the case of electric vehicles

While the immediate impacts are devastating, they are not the only imperative to tackle losses. The UK Government is rolling out strategies to meet its climate change ambitions, but the country’s outdated energy grid network is not fit for purpose and cannot cope with the burden these strategies will bring.


Let’s take the government’s ambition to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040, and the expected 36 million electric vehicles on the road by 2040, for example. An essential component of this target is delivering infrastructure that can support electric vehicles – a rapid increase of these vehicles on the road requires access to charge points and increased energy capacity to meet a huge increase in demand.

/  A staggering amount of the extra demand the UK will need to fuel the electric vehicle revolution is already being produced  /

Whilst the government makes some noise on meeting demand through looking at energy generation and shouts from the rooftops about creating a world-leading charging infrastructure, little thought is going in to what happens in between – the sprawling network of cables that make up the UK’s transmission and distribution system.


The UK’s losses from transmission and distribution account for 83% of the National Grid’s expected increase in electricity requirement from electric vehicles by 2050. A staggering amount of the extra demand the UK will need to fuel the electric vehicle revolution is already being produced; we just need to ensure it gets to where it’s supposed to.


This revolution requires a smarter, more flexible, fit-for-purpose energy network. In stark contrast to the one-way energy of the past, these vehicles can be used as a form of energy storage to be sold back to the grid at times of greatest need. With energy moving both ways charging and discharging electric vehicles, this two-way flow will multiply the losses in the system if new low-loss technology is not deployed when rolling out charging points.


The National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios models our energy future, with the latest report predicting a rise in peak demand of between 19GW and 27GW by 2050. The government and others are failing to realise the scope of the problem the UK faces in guaranteeing a reliable energy network to support these grand ambitions.


The country’s outdated transmission and distribution network is holding back much needed progress, but innovation holds the answer to the problem of losses.

/  By deploying new, revolutionary cables such as the CTS, massive energy losses could become a thing of the past  /

Mitigating the effects of losses

By balancing reactance and capacitance within cabling, it is possible to limit voltage drop.


Reactance causes two things: reactive power and voltage drop. The voltage drop requires more current to be drawn through the system to feed the load. As a result, there are greater heat losses in the cable and transformers. The reactive power that is then delivered at the downstream end of the cable is not accessible to most loads and is not useful. The Capacitive Transfer System – or CTS Cable – uses innovative technology to balance reactance and capacitance, reducing voltage drop by up to 50% with the result of drastically lower energy losses.

/  By deploying new, revolutionary cables such as the CTS, massive energy losses could become a thing of the past  /

By deploying new, revolutionary cables such as the CTS, massive energy losses could become a thing of the past. It is vital we mitigate the devastating effect of losses that are currently undermining the UK’s shift to renewables, hindering pioneering low carbon strategies, and costing customers. The country’s green future is bright if attention is given to infrastructure in its entirety.

Author biography

Dominic Quennell, managing director and a founder of Enertechnos, has over 35 years’ experience in starting, growing and managing businesses. Dominic previously worked for many years in the hi-tech printing machinery industry, establishing and running distributor operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He spent six years based in Japan with Duplo Corporation as vice president of global marketing. He managed the transition of the business from conventional ink-based printing to commercial-scale digital printing. This was a significant disruption to the established industry but one that is now accepted as providing benefits to producers, users and customers alike. Subsequently, he worked as a consultant and interim manager/director before becoming fully engaged with this project. Dominic is a founder shareholder of EHL.

Cover image credit: Thomas Koch/Shutterstock

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