off-grid.net The current system of generating electricity centrally and distributing it through the grid wastes as much as sixty per cent of energy -and it ain't about to get any better, a leading UK academic has told Off-Grid.
Tim Green, Professor of Power Engineering at Imperial College London told us that efficiency losses in power generation are the biggest issue facing the power industry today.
He estimated that energy losses in the power grid during generation of electricity are between 45 per cent and 55 per cent, depending on the technology used. The transmission system run by National Grid which does the bulk shipping of electricity in the UK, loses a further two or three per cent. Local distribution networks run by big power companies have losses of between five and seven per cent."The local distribution networks have higher losses than National Grid because they operate at lower voltages," explained Professor Green.
Limited generating efficiency
"In energy generation you simply cannot achieve 100% efficiency -or anything close to it because of thermodynamic limitations such as maximum operating temperatures."
However he was anxious to separate the issues of power generation and transmission, which he sees as unrelated, "It is highly misleading to lump generation and transmission networks together and give an overall loss figure because there are two different sets of issues at play and two different approaches needed."
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