The Oil Drum: Europe | UK Energy Flow Chart 2007

UK Energy Flow Chart 2007

Posted by Chris Vernon on September 5, 2008 - 10:30am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: electricity, energy, energy gap, natural gas, nuclear, oil, production, united kingdom [list all tags]

Every few years the UK Department of Trade and Industry, now Department of Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, publish a chart of the nation's energy flows. Here's the most recently published chart based on 2007 data:

Click for .pdf

It's a nice, high level overview of energy in the UK illustrating the flow of primary fuels from the point at which they become available from home production or imports (on the left) to their eventual final uses (on the right). Flows at the bottom represent exports, conversion losses and energy industry and non-energy use. The yellow blocks represent transformation (power stations and refineries).

The energy flow charts from 2001 and 2004 are also available from DeBERR: Energy Flow Charts.

A quick comparison between 2001 and 2007 reveals:

Gas production down 32% with imports providing 29%, up from just 2%.
Coal production down 47% with imports providing 73%, up from 54%.
Oil production down 34%.
Electricity from nuclear is down 33% however renewables have more than doubled.
Small increase in oil use for transport, small decrease in gas use.
Energy used in the iron and steel industry has fallen by a half.

The changes can be summarised in the following chart:

Source: DUKES 1.1 and 1.1.1

It is a dramatic change over a decade, even more so considering energy prices were low on the left side and high on the right. Currently the gap is met through imports. However with North Sea oil and gas production continuing to fall and with the future nuclear decommission schedule clear, it can only be matter of time until the growing gap can no longer be addressed by increasingly expensive imports.

UK domestic gas and electricity prices have increased dramatically in 2008:

PRICE INCREASES THIS YEAR
4 Jan - Npower: Gas up 17.2%, electricity up 12.7%
15 Jan - EDF Energy: Gas up 12.9%, electricity up 7.9%
18 Jan - British Gas: Gas and electricity up 15%
1 Feb - Scottish Power: Gas up by 15%, electricity up 14%
7 Feb - E.On: Gas up 15%, electricity up 9.7%
19 March - Scottish & Southern: Gas up 15.8%, electricity up 14.2%
5 July - EDF Energy: Gas up 22%, electricity up 17%
30 July - British Gas: Gas up 35%, electricity up 9%
21 Aug - Eon: Gas up 26%, electricity up 16%
21 Aug - Scottish & Southern: Gas up 29.2%, electricity up 19.2%
29 Aug - Scottish Power: Gas up 34%, electricity up 9%
29 Aug - Npower: Gas up 26%, electricity up 14%

Source: BBC News