Electricity intensity in UK industry

Abstract Continuing a recent line of investigation, the issue of electricity use in industry is examined with the aim of presenting a more satisfactory explanation of the growth in overall electricity intensity. The present analysis deals with the changing composition of industrial production at a highly disaggregated level and the significant part that this has played in increasing the electricity-output ratio. Although the ratio has grown at 2% per annum, once allowance is made for the compositional effect and for changes in the level of private generation, electricity intensity appears to have been remarkably constant over the 1970s.