Energy used should be minimised wherever possible; no more power than is essential should be used. Local energy resources should be used to minimise losses. Local generation is also much more resilient to terrorist attack or damage from serious meteorological events. Active network management has a large part to play in the energy systems of the future. The task is to adapt the network to one designed to locally manage generation and load. Two aspects of this new design of the network are: active voltage control and dynamic ratings. Dynamic ratings use the ambient conditions to determine the amount of power that can be carried by different assets. As well as new pieces of equipment, active voltage control uses generation to take an active part in controlling voltage. This new active network will require more communication links and logic control scripts than used by the present network designs. Local generation gives communities back a sense of ownership of the generation and the power they use and a link with the environment around us. Local generation offers education on one's doorstep. It is a perfect physical ‘hands-on’ education tool to attract the next generation to engineering. Local power generation must be linked to heat and transport demand.
