113% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption in 2022 – the latest figures published – was generated from renewable sources, an increase of 26% compared to 2021.

Energy Secretary in the Scottish Government Neil Gray said:

“Scotland has the skills, talent and natural resources to become a global renewables powerhouse. Our ambition is not only to generate enough green electricity to power Scotland’s homes and businesses, but also export electricity to our neighbours, supporting jobs here in Scotland and the decarbonisation ambitions of our partners.

“The significant growth in renewables will deliver a climate friendly energy system that delivers affordable, resilient and clean energy supplies for Scotland’s households, business and communities.

“We will soon be publishing our Green Industrial Strategy setting out the steps we will take to maximise the benefits that Scotland’s abundant natural resources can deliver in creating new jobs and opportunities across the country.

“But in a number of areas progress is being held back by factors such as grid capacity and the lack of a market mechanism for the likes of pumped hydro storage, which is why we need urgent investment from the UK Government now and more consistent commitment to industry in the years ahead.”

Consumption of electricity in 2022 dropped by 4% from 2021 with a decrease of 1% in non-domestic consumption and a decrease of 9% in domestic consumption.

Electricity used across Scotland’s households fell although, Orkney, like all the islands and Highlands of Scotland, consumes more because of being off the gas grid and having to rely mostly on electricity or oil.

Local Authority	Ave household Consumption(kWh)	Total Consumption (GWh)
Dumfries and Galloway	4,242	794
East Ayrshire	3,222	403
East Lothian	3,874	460
East Renfrewshire	3,707	218
Na h-Eileanan Siar	6,492	150
Falkirk	3,449	629
Highland	5,643	1,527
Inverclyde	3,172	282
Midlothian	3,403	335
Moray	4,058	466
North Ayrshire	3,502	576
Orkney Islands	7,493	138
Scottish Borders	4,212	514
Shetland Islands	9,011	178
South Ayrshire	3,571	439
South Lanarkshire	3,635	1,079
Stirling	4,198	456
Aberdeen City	3,387	967
Aberdeenshire	4,632	1,197
Argyll and Bute	5,999	487
City of Edinburgh	3,376	2,050
Renfrewshire	3,077	672
West Dunbartonshire	3,008	329
West Lothian	3,404	715
Angus	4,012	508
Dundee City	3,616	572
East Dunbartonshire	3,610	318
Fife	3,448	1,442
Perth and Kinross	4,601	679
Glasgow City	3,005	2,451
North Lanarkshire	3,280	1,250
Scotland	3,737	22,927

Warm This Winter is a coalition of more than 40 organisations working together to demand that the UK Government takes real action that will bring down energy bills. They are determined to make energy a key General Election issue.

Energy is mostly a power retained by the UK London Government:

• the generation and supply of electricity, oil and gas
• the exploration and extraction of offshore oil reserves
• coal ownership and exploitation and deep and opencast coal mining
• nuclear energy and safety

The Scottish Parliament has powers to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency, and for onshore oil and gas licensing.

Warm This Winter state “Gas prices are predicted to stay high until at least 2025. It means that, without action to fix the UK’s broken energy system, energy bills will stay unaffordable for millions of people for years to come.”

The energy campaigning group has also published its latest Tariff Watch. It reports that there are covert charges on our energy bills:

• The latest report examines the electricity network costs added to customers’ standing charges.
• It has uncovered 14 obscure charges which are being passed onto our bills through the Ofgem price cap, leading to Electricity Standing Charges surging 119% since winter 2020/21 and accounting for £194 a year per household.
• Among these, customers are paying for “Line Losses” – energy lost while transmitting electricity around the network – but are being charged a set amount, rather than the cost of the actual amount of electricity lost.
• Energy network operators forecast budgets in advance, but complex rules mean that if they overestimate costs, they only have to return a portion of the leftover budget to customers, and get to keep the rest.
• Between 2015 and 2022, these operators spent £933 million less than they forecasted – but only gave around half of that money back to customers.
• Energy firms have underspent on grid upgrade plans, and this lack of investment is keeping electricity prices high, hobbling Britain’s access to cheap, renewable energy despite a thriving industry.

You can read their full report here: Warm This Winter Tariff Watch

And if you are wondering where all the profits go from the energy produced in Scotland, and across the UK system, this is what Tariff Watch tells us:

Fiona Grahame