New approach to setting electricity distribution charges in GB

The drive towards localised renewable powered electricity generation and away from big, "dirty" power stations means that the manner in which electricity networks operate is changing.  The old model in which electricity was generated in large power stations which then cascaded down the network - first through the national grid of electricity pylons and then through local distribution networks - is, to some extent, going to be replaced by a model in which a significant amount of electricity is generated by cleaner types of generation near to where it is consumed.  Aside from reducing the country's carbon footprint, one upshot of this is that electricity may no longer always cascade down the national grid, but instead may, at times, go back "up" some of the network.  Partly as a result of this fundamental change to the way the networks will be used, some of the companies that own the electricity distribution networks in Britain have been reviewing the way in which they set the tariffs they charge to users of the networks.

Frontier (Europe) is advising a group of electricity distribution companies on the changes that these companies have proposed.