Energy Security

I realised that I’ve talked a lot about energy security in my previous blogs and never properly discussed the meaning of it or its importance to the topic of fracking, so here's a short explanation. 

Energy security is defined by the International Energy Agency as the uninterrupted physical availability of energy at a price which is affordable, while respecting environmental concerns (IEA, 2010). This can be long-term based on economic and sustainable development or short-term based on supply and demand and reactions to sudden changes in energy policy. Ways in which energy security can be achieved varies between countries depending on domestic resources and economic status.  To put it in simple terms see the diagram below, that is all energy security is.

Source. 

Energy security is very important in regards to fracking.  In the UK the availability of shale gas will allow us to stop importing gas from Russia giving us more energy independence and even give us export opportunities, both of which will dramatically increase the countries energy security.

To see what the UK government is doing about energy security please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/uk-energy-security