This month’s Comment Visions looks at energy provision from an interesting angle; beyond the consensus that we need less reliance of fossil fuels and more energy sources, how could the energy provision infrastructure – the grid – be improved?

Smart Grids are believed to be the answer and Comment Visions talks to an expert in the field; Dr Keith Bell, Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Energy and Environment within the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

Dr Bell discusses smart grids – what they are, how they would work in practice and their potential impact. The paradigm shift he is imagining a management of energy resources at the demand-side rather the supply end. That would deliver what Dr Bell himself describes as a ‘radically different electricity infrastructure.’