Inaugural lecture: How could suppliers and customers dramatically reduce future electricity bills?

Date and Time: Wednesday 19 June 2013 at 18:15
Venue: 2 East 3.1
 
Professor Furong Li, from the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, will be presenting her inaugural lecture on Wednesday 19 June 2013 at 18:15 in 2 East 3.1.

This is a free lecture and open to the public.

To book a place please email Alison Ryan, Department Coordinator, Electronic & Electrical Engineering or call on 01225 386601


How could suppliers and customers dramatically reduce future electricity bills?

Electricity prices have almost doubled in the past 8 years and next autumn, five of the six energy suppliers will increase their energy prices by another 6% to 11%. A further 25% rise in prices is predicted in the coming years to pay for the cost of the transition to the supply of greener energy. The UK’s power industry is embarking on two major challenges in the coming decade to combat climate change; namely a significant shift to low carbon generation and the modernisation of the transmission and distribution networks (smart grids). Do electricity customers have a voice in these developments and thus in the management of their electricity bills?

Within the industry, customers are perceived as being willing to pay very high prices in order to keep the lights on. Energy demand is considered “price inelastic”, i.e. it is insensitive to the rise and fall of price. Professor Li will highlight the consequences of such a perception for the development of a future supply system, and its likely impact on our energy bills.

Looking to the future, Professor Li will explore how suppliers can play a pivotal role in changing the perception of a customer’s willingness to pay and help the supply industry move away from simply predicting and then meeting customer demand. Managing consumer expectations at times when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine could be the key to reducing an otherwise reliance on a reserve of fossil generation and the creation of a redundant infrastructure.

However, there is a major challenge in providing a simple route for consumers to express their willingness to pay and challenges for consumers to adopt early application technologies. Professor Li will argue that the deferral of future generation and infrastructure investment can only be achieved by forming a close partnership between suppliers and customers, thus future electricity bills significantly reduced. 


Professor Furong Li

Professor Li is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Fellow (2013-2018) and was an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow (2006-2011). She has expertise in smart grid planning, operation and pricing and value analyses of network flexibility, energy storage and demand response. She has undertaken research and consultancies for DECC, Ofgem, NPower, Centric, Wessex Water, Areva, and the UK’s transmission and distribution licensees. She chairs the International Working Group for Distribution Pricing and Tariffs (USA) and is an executive member of the IET Power Trading and Control network (UK).