Rachel Morison & Isis Almeids:
Demand for power in the British capital will climb more than 5 percent by the end of this decade, versus 2 percent in Paris and a drop of 1 percent in New York. National Grid Plc, the power-network operator, is spending almost 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) on the project; the expanded use of electric heating and transportation and the proliferation of skyscrapers mean consumption may rise as much as 60 percent by mid-century.
London’s households use less than half the electricity of those in the U.S., according to Enerdata Information Services, a Grenoble, France-based research company. The gap will narrow because of the increased demand and expansion of low-carbon power generation.
“We really are in the center of the U.K.’s economic recovery,” Matthew Pencharz, energy adviser to mayor Boris Johnson, said in an interview at City Hall. “Concurrent with that is a huge increase for power, particularly as we seek to electrify our transport and as more of our heating is done by power.”