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techUK’s new smart infrastructure initiative announces December event with the team behind National Grid’s Power Responsive campaign.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that our energy system needs to go through some major changes if it is going to be fit for a low carbon future. The oft-mentioned 'energy trilemma' is the challenge at hand.

What does this mean? Firstly, it's about sustainability: we need an energy grid that is intelligent enough to incorporate intermittent renewable energy so that we can meet our emissions targets. Secondly, it's about affordability: we need energy bills to be manageable for all consumers of energy. Finally, it's about security: with a significant chunk of the UK's generating capacity to close by 2020, we need to generate more of our own energy so that we can reduce our dependence on energy from abroad.

Two of the challenges above refer to issues relating to the supply-side. An issue that often gets lost in the noise, though, is how we use energy (the demand-side). The purpose of National Grid's new Power Responsive campaign is to promote and facilitate the rapid growth of demand side solutions. 'Demand side response' is perhaps the best known of these solutions. National Grid explain it as 'intelligent energy usage. By knowing when to increase, decrease or shift their electricity consumption, businesses and consumers will save on total energy costs and can reduce their carbon footprints.'

The Power Responsive campaign is a platform aimed at galvanising businesses, suppliers, policy makers and others to seize the opportunity to shape the growth of demand side response collaboratively and deliver it at scale by 2020.

At this event, we'll be hearing from Paul Lowbridge, National Grid's Power Responsive Campaign Lead, as well as some of the Campaign's main project partners (TBC).

If you would you like to join us, please email Lucas Banach at lucas.banach@techUK.org. Details about new speakers will be confirmed in due course.