Sunderland homes use less electricity

Greenpeace and the Energy Saving Trust say a drop in electricity consumption nationally is good news for the environment – but more has to be done to improve our energy efficiency.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy data reveals that homes in the city consumed 3,433 kilowatt hours on average in 2019.

That was 10% down from 3,433 kWh in 2015 – the same as the North East’s average drop over the period.

The figures show the number of domestic electricity meters in the area rose from 127,700 in 2015, to 129,900 last year.

The data is based on the aggregation of meter readings and does not include electricity consumed directly from on-site generation, such as that generated by solar panels.

Across Great Britain, the figure show that households consumed 7.6% less electricity than four years ago.

Sam Chetan-Welsh, from Greenpeace UK, said: “The more efficient we get with our energy use, the better chance we stand of cleaning up the supply and saving ourselves from catastrophe."

There is further scope for society to reduce its electricity consumption and boost employment by insulating homes, he added, and continue to improve electrical goods’ efficiency through better product design.

A spokesman for Energy Saving Trust said the reduction in electricity demand would help in the transition to a low carbon society.

"One of the leading environmental issues with electricity production is the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels in our power stations.

"Carbon emissions from electricity production have been falling over the last decade.

"This is because fossil-fuelled power stations, in particular coal, have gone offline and there has been a huge increase in renewably-powered generation from wind farms, local renewable electricity generation including those from solar PV panel systems.

"Hopefully, our future will look to electricity as a key environmental source of energy to not only power our homes, devices, appliances and lights, but also to charge our electric cars and heat our home with heat pumps."