Scotland could be a leading supplier of renewable energy within Europe – if sufficient investment were made. One area where this isn’t happening is in the National Grid that transports electricity between generator and supplier. In the UK this was privatised by Thatcher and is a significant barrier to new renewable scheme delivery.

The UK is the only country with a fully privates national electricity grid in Europe. This is because distributing electricity is a natural monopoly – there is only one set of pipes, pylons and cables that bring electricity to the end users. In the UK 60% of this monpoly service is currently owned by Macquarie of Australia (which also has the option for taking 100% ownership). It delivers a 19% profit margin, or £1.4bn dividends each year, that are not being spent on investment.

There is currently an up to 10 yr wait for renewable scheme connections. This makes it largley pointless increasing renewable energy investment if it cannot be fed into a modern, cost-effective grid.

After independence Scotland would nationalise it’s National Grid and re-invest in expansion of the Grid to support faster growth in Renewables. What’s more profits from distribution of electricity to other countries – including rUK – would be Scotland’s.

Sources

Council of European Energy Regulators (2016) Review on the Implementation of Transmission System Operators’ Unbundling Provisions of the 3rd Energy Package