The end of the grid as we know it?

The climate change challenge we are currently facing globally makes attention to the energy sector an imperative, and this includes taking seriously the potential for radical changes to our current system, including a greater contribution from distributed generation (DG). At the same time, there is reason to be cautious in accepting all of these claims wholesale and creating specific policies to promote DG as a distinct, arbitrary category within the energy sector. It is clear that in the present situation there is not adequate consumer pull to spontaneously create a market of any significant scale for DG technologies, regardless of their technological potential. In the context of the UK's liberalised energy market, what is required is a well-designed policy framework that will reward efficiency and environmental benefits in DG technologies the same way as it does for conventional largescale generators. Such a framework would ultimately foster the emergence of a more diverse and low-carbon energy system in which DG solutions would find their place. This paper identifies the different factors that need to be considered to make DG a real option