The prime minister’s pledge to join the US in phasing out Russian oil – and exploring ways to do the same with gas – is aimed at hitting the Kremlin’s coffers but it also presents a problem for the UK.
In Britain, about 4% of gas and 8% of oil comes from Russia, far lower than its European neighbours. But turmoil in the energy markets has sent gas and petrol prices soaring, exacerbating the cost of living crisis. Weaning ourselves off Russian resources – by sourcing supplies elsewhere or pursuing the increased use of renewables and nuclear – will cost money and take time.
One obvious solution is to use less gas and oil in the meantime via a nationwide effort that, while redolent of the sacrifices made in previous global conflicts, need not be nearly as painful and could have long-term benefits.
Ways to do it range from turning down the thermostat and driving slower on the motorway to accelerating the shift towards technology such as heat pumps. Here are some options.
Insulation
Government policy could reduce Britain’s gas usage by the equivalent of current Russian imports by 2027, according to the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), solving the problem more quickly than increasing gas output from the North Sea.
A good starting point, the ECIU said, is to upgrade 1m homes a year from Band D of the energy efficiency scale to Band C, reducing their gas usage by 20%.
That isn’t unprecedented. The UK installed energy efficiency measures in 2.3m homes in 2012, mostly loft and wall insulation, before policy changes slashed the rate to about a 10th of that. UK gas demand was 810 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2019, the last year before the pandemic, while Russian imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are about 33.7TWh, 4%.
The ECIU says its insulation proposal would save 3.6TWh a year at first and 18TWh annually by 2027, shaving £170 off an annual gas bill.
The Climate Change Committee estimates that two-thirds of the UK’s 30m homes could be made more energy-efficient for less than £1,000 each. A back-of-an-envelope sum indicates a cost of less than £20bn to do that.
Heat pumps
Throw heat pumps into the mix and efforts to wean ourselves off gas speed up. They use electricity to suck in warmth from outside for home heating and hot water. Much of the UK’s electricity is still gas-generated but the switch could still reduce gas usage by 80% in better-insulated homes. As gas is phased out of the electricity mix, that percentage should grow.
The government is aiming for 600,000 heat-pump installations per year by 2028, up from about 67,000 in 2021, but the Climate Change Committee says 900,000 annually is doable.
A report by energy experts at the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) estimates the cost of publicly-funded support for hitting the CCC’s trajectory at £0.5bn a year, rising to £3bn by 2030. “[The rollout] should be upgraded so that more people make the switch,” said the RAP’s Jan Rosenow.
There is a £5,000 government grant available for installation and sky-high gas prices now means that they can be competitive on price with gas boilers, he added. That’s a position backed by household supplier Octopus Energy.
According to the ECIU, the gas saving via heat-pump installation could hit 17TWh by 2027 and would reach the point at which it offsets the loss of Russian LNG imports by 2031.
Turning down the thermostat
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said last week that Europeans could help weaken the Kremlin’s power by turning down the thermostat by a degree.
This, said the IEA, would save about 10bn cubic metres of gas within a year, a useful saving on total Russian gas imports of 155bn cubic metres. Taking shorter showers and running a lower-temperature cycle on washing machines could also have a small but meaningful effect if enacted on a mass scale.
Eco driving
The IEA also has a paper, published in 2018, entitled Saving Oil in a Hurry. It outlines ways in which economies could “rapidly” cut oil consumption by as much as 10% in the event of a major disruption to global oil supplies.
The IEA’s measures are intended to solve a short-term disruption and could serve as a stopgap while alternative, non-Russian, supplies are arranged. Widespread adoption of some of the measures in the long term could also help reduce carbon emissions.
The report recommends conserving fuel by making changes to driving behaviour such as going below the speed limit, turning off the engine at traffic lights and not putting the pedal to the metal when they go green. It also points to ways to make personal vehicles more efficient such as ensuring tyres are properly inflated, not driving around with heavy loads and sharing rides with colleagues or friends.
Societal change
Other suggestions address the big picture, such as a shift towards home working, something the authors of the 2018 report could not have envisaged would already have been put on the agenda by the pandemic.
The report also suggests some relatively drastic government-imposed measures that might meet with opposition from motorists. They include things like electronic road pricing (tolls) and restrictions that allow people to drive only at certain times or on alternate days.
One solution that might prove more popular is making all public transport free of charge.
