Air conditioning and the future electricity system in Great Britain
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19487255 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charles Simpson (0000-0001-9356-5833, Energy Institute), Charles H Simpson, Sapna Halai (Energy Institute), James Price (0000-0001-7315-6469, Energy Institute), Giorgos Petrou (0000-0002-1524-2681, Energy Institute), Clare Heaviside (0000-0002-0263-4985, Energy Institute), Michael Davies (0000-0003-2173-7063, Energy Institute), Michael A Davies (0000-0002-0977-0912, Energy Institute) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 136 |
| Pages | 104727 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Energy Research & Social Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2214-6296 • E-ISSN: 2214-6326 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104727 |
| PMID | 42639335 |
| OpenAlex | W4412769500 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
As summers get hotter due to climate change, demand for air conditioning is increasing in temperate regions where it was previously low. The UK has targets to decarbonise its electricity system. Surveys suggest residential air conditioning ownership is growing faster than previously assumed, raising questions about the compatibility of growing demand with decarbonisation goals. In this study, we explore whether increasing residential air conditioning would increase the challenge or cost of operating a decarbonised electricity system. Future summer electricity in Great Britain may be low carbon, but we argue that official modelling assumes unrealistically slow growth of residential air conditioning. The summer adequacy of the future energy system is less well studied compared to winter, and we suggest that adequacy in summer has not been sufficiently explored. A more detailed quantitative analysis is required of the sensitivity of electricity system design to demand assumptions, and we outline what would be required. If the electricity system is built around underestimated demand, there is risk that this will lead to missed decarbonisation targets or greater operational challenges. But, if low demand assumptions are incorrectly treated as constraints, opportunities may be missed to protect health from overheating and to accelerate heat pump uptake
Air conditioning · Architectural engineering · Climate change · Conditioning · Context (archaeology) · Electrical engineering · Electricity · Electricity demand · Electricity generation · Electricity system · Electrification · Overheating (electricity) · Peak demand · Physics · Renewable energy · Thermodynamics · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Climate Change and Sustainable Development · Energy Efficiency and Management · Engineering · Environmental Science · Integrated Energy Systems Optimization · Mathematics · Mechanical Engineering
Climate change is projected to have severe impacts on the frequency and intensity of peak electricity demand across the United States
Energy poverty and indoor cooling
Reducing the health effects of hot weather and heat extremes
Quantifying the increasing sensitivity of power systems to climate variability
Reinventing energy efficiency for net zero
Actors, networks, and translation hubs
Historical energy transitions
A nation unprepared
People centric policy is needed to create a clean cooling pathway for UK homes
Extreme Heat Awareness and Protective Behaviors in New York City
Risk-opportunity analysis for transformative policy design and appraisal
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |