In an interview with REEEP, Walt Patterson, Chatham House, London, focuses on the inherent prejudice against efficiency in most energy supply systems, where it remains in suppliers' interest that customers use inefficient technologies, boosting their consumption of the suppliers' energy products.
6 May 2011: The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership’s (REEEP) Sustainable Energy Regulation Network (SERN) has published an interview with Walt Patterson, Chatham House, London, on the current state of electricity systems.
The interview focuses on systemic issues in current energy governance that reinforce inefficiencies and business-as-usual. Patterson highlights the inherent prejudice against efficiency in most energy supply systems, where it remains in suppliers’ interest that customers use inefficient technologies, boosting their consumption of the suppliers’ energy products. To rectify this, thereby reducing demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, he recommends that regulators focus on comprehensively reducing customers’ energy bills by improving electrical and heating efficiencies, and not on unit price of electricity. Patterson further suggests encouraging long-term contracts tied to the efficiency of buildings themselves, instead of the often short-term contracts with occupants of buildings, which would facilitate energy efficiency investments. [The Interview]