A low carbon electricity generation mix will be a key feature of
our sustainable future. A mixture of an inflexible base load and
intermittent renewable generation will make responding to demand
difficult without the use of expensive, carbon intensive natural
gas power plants. If vice-versa demand could be matched to
supply a cleaner energy mix would be possible – further
mitigating climate change. Many consumers could modify the times
at which they use electricity to bring it into line with
available supply. The inhabitants of an of-grid alternative
community in Wales already live like this seizing the
opportunities presented by the output of their renewable
generators - living their electric lives to the rhythms of the
weather. But how can main-stream consumers with grid connections
be incentivised to adopt these behaviours? Continuously variable
pricing seems like a good way. Prices would be based on the
relative difficulty of supplying electricity at a given time. In
fact there is already an electricity w