A lot of people get confused between the electricity they use and the energy they use.

It’s easy to forget that the majority of people use natural gas for heating (e.g. a gas-fired central heating system) and cooking and petrol for transport; electricity only makes up a small part of the mix.

The graph below shows how the UK’s “energy mix” has changed over the last forty years.

Electrification peaked between 1994 and 1998, the same time that nuclear power was at it’s peak in the UK. Greater electrification would be a benefit to the environment as electricity is a low-carbon fuel, especially when nuclear and renewables make a large contribution to the fuel mix. Also the “Dash for Gas” in the ’90s is clearly visible as a very marked increase in the size of the blue section.