General Electric (GE) has warned the EU that it will fail to deliver on the goals set out in the energy and climate change package, if it does not upgrade its grid infrastructure. The current grid is built to ensure that energy supply is both of a good quality and reliable, rather than with transmission efficiency and renewable capabilities in mind. This would mean that the current structure would find it difficult to meet the demands of the package.

In place of the current system, GE suggests implementing a ‘smart’ grid, also known as a ‘super grid’, which would work by making power routes more efficient as well as allowing consumers to control their demand of energy, through the use of a combination of hardware and software.

According to Keith Redfearn, a senior figure at GE, it would currently ‘not be possible to add all the renewables to the grid, as it wasn't built for this’. In fact the required grids need to be able to use electricity flows from many different sources, something which the grids currently cannot do. If they have this capability it would allow them to integrate renewable energies into energy supply.

Only 20% of technology needed to implement such a grid is currently being used, with up to 90% already potentially available according to GE, so it seems to be a question of political will more than any other factor. Given that many of the power grids of the EU are ageing and in need of replacement, supporters argue that now is the perfect time to implement such changes.

Furthermore, the current financial crisis should be an added incentive to action rather than a hindrance argues Mr Redfearn. The grid infrastructure is the ‘backbone of the economy’, and as such revamping this sector would provide a good starting point in trying to revitalise the wider economy.