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Readers in certain parts of the UK might have noticed broad swathes of farmland disappearing under row upon row of solar panels while miles of coastline now bristle with ranks of tall wind turbines.

As the UK weans itself off fossil fuels in an attempt to achieve ‘net zero’ by 2050, more and more of our energy will come from these renewable sources.

The present government has vowed to redouble efforts to decarbonise. Following Labour’s election victory last summer, Keir Starmer promised that over this parliament he would build enough offshore wind turbines to power 20 million homes.

This article was first published in the September 2025 issue of The Construction Index Magazine. Sign up online.

But one of the main obstacles in the way of this noble aspiration is distribution. It’s all very well generating megawatts of power in the North Sea; it’s quite another to deliver that energy to millions of consumers on dry land.

Already, many local authorities have signalled their opposition to plans for a new network of pylons; even some of Starmer’s own MPs have voiced their objections.

Power distribution is a delicate and complex balancing act made even more challenging by our increasing reliance on renewables and the inherently intermittent nature of wind and sunshine.

It doesn’t help that demand for electricity will increase as gas and petroleum consumption declines. Pressure on the National Grid to accommodate this additional load will grow substantially and many fear that demand in some areas will exceed supply unless something is done to address capacity.

Such concerns are driving the search for other ways of powering communities and some believe that the answer is microgrids – self-contained electrical networks that can operate independently or through connection to the national grid.

One enthusiastic proponent is Alex Hill, managing director of Gravesend-based utilities consultant Whitecode Consulting. “Microgrids give users the opportunity to generate their own electricity on-site and use it when needed,” he says.

A microgrid can collect energy from several sources, such as solar panels or wind turbines, for the exclusive use of local residential, commercial or industrial users. Smart grid technologies, such as advanced metering and demand response systems allow a microgrid to switch automatically between the national grid and the local supply in response to fluctuating demand.

This article was first published in the September 2025 issue of The Construction Index Magazine. Sign up online.

“By connecting small-scale power sources to the local grid, microgrids ensure a more reliable electricity supply and reduce potential transmission losses,” says Hill.

Because they are located closer to the end-users, microgrids minimise the transmission losses that occur when electricity travels over long distances. These losses can account for a significant percentage of the total energy generated and reducing them can significantly decrease carbon emissions.

The advantages of setting up a microgrid have already been demonstrated at two remote locations in the UK: Orkney and the Isles of Scilly.

The Isles of Scilly Council’s microgrids project, established in 2015, has seen the islands transition from a reliance on expensive and environmentally-harmful diesel generators to the use renewable energy sources.

The islands – which were already connected to the National Grid via a single 33kV undersea cable – now generate a substantial portion of their energy from solar panels and wind turbines.

 Similarly, the £28.5m Responsive Flexibility Orkney (REFLEX) smart-grid project – devised by the Orkney Islands Council in collaboration with several major energy organisations and launched in 2019 – has seen the islands become a testing ground for renewable energy technologies.

The initiative hopes to maximise the use of locally-generated and abundant green energy, such as tidal and wind resources, to eventually eliminate the need for fossil fuels on the islands. “As a result, Orkney now produces more renewable energy than it can consume, making it a net exporter of clean energy,” says Hill.

But microgrids are not just for remote island communities. Hill says they might also help energy consumers, including residential developers and property owners anywhere in the UK, meet their energy resilience, efficiency and emission reduction goals.

Establishing a microgrid within a major development – rather in the manner of a combined heat and power network – is  also likely to help a developer or building owner achieve high environmental assessment rating from schemes such as BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) or LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Despite their sustainability and efficiency benefits, however, microgrids are still some way from becoming a national solution. In addition to challenges such as energy distribution conflicts, pricing issues and ensuring interoperability with the National Grid, scaling up to serve larger communities will also require major infrastructure investment, technical advancements and collaboration among stakeholders, says Hill.

“Transparent sharing of metering data is also essential to enable consumers’ average usage to be estimated, overestimations to be avoided and informed decision-making on grid connections.”

Nevertheless, Hill insists that microgrids offer an “incredible” opportunity to give communities greater control over their energy use and production while reducing their carbon footprint and lowering reliance on the National Grid.

This article was first published in the September 2025 issue of The Construction Index Magazine. Sign up online.

Microgrids might also have offered a significant advantage in the adoption of zonal energy pricing – a concept briefly favoured by energy secretary Ed Miliband.

This idea involves charging energy users different rates depending on where they are located, the price being lower in areas with large amounts of cheap generation and higher in crowded areas with low generation.

And if one ‘zone’ has more power than its residents require, microgrids could export some of this energy to other zones that require cheaper electricity. Thus communities with access to considerable amounts of renewable energy could take advantage of potentially cheaper electricity pricing before selling any excess renewable power to another area.

But the idea of zonal energy pricing is exactly that – an idea, and one that Miliband turned against earlier this year. Those areas likely to be charged the highest rates are mostly in the densely populated southeast – hardly a vote-winner.

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