Independent Non-Fiction
OVERCHARGED
How The Grid Took Your Power
About OVERCHARGED
Britain is spending billions fixing its electricity system. But OVERCHARGED shows the problems date back to the founding of the grid exactly 100 years ago. With his customary irreverence and scathing humour, Nick Rosen brings those early debates to life, from Caroline Haslett, the original kitchen influencer who popularised electrical gadgets, to the “trad wives” of the 1930s, to a modern-day whistleblower from inside the National Grid.
The book examines what happens when a system designed around King Coal and one-way flows, encounters rooftop solar, batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and rapidly growing computational demand.
The debate today filling acres of newspaper columns from the heavyweight to the tabloid media, is very much the same one as ran a century ago – only the scale is vastly greater, and the money is flowing rapidly in the wrong direction. The problem is not simply about more electricity: a rethink is needed on how we generate, move, store, and use it, and, ultimately, about who controls it.
Key Selling Points
- The centenary of Britain's National Grid: published in September 2026, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the grid.
- A social history as well as a political and economic one: illustrated with 40 pages of photographs and images, bringing the people, technologies and changing habits of electricity to life.
- Electricity, with wit: Nick Rosen applies his trademark wit and eye for the telling detail to a subject usually treated with deadly seriousness.
- Makes sense of the electricity news: explains the flood of stories about new power stations, grid investment and the billions being spent to reshape Britain's electricity system.
- AI enters the grid: explains how AI is transforming electricity demand — and asks a provocative question: should we ever let AI get in charge of the electricity supply?
- No technical knowledge required: an accessible guide to one of the biggest economic and political transformations underway in Britain.
About the Author
Nick Rosen is a British author, journalist and documentary maker whose work has focused on technology, energy, housing and the changing relationship between people and infrastructure. He has built a considerable following in his long career and can be found on most of the main social media platforms.
He is the author of How To Live Off Grid (Bantam, 2008), Off The Grid (Penguin, 2010), and The Nethead Handbook (Hodder & Stoughton, 1997) as well as numerous financial reports and pamphlets.
In OVERCHARGED, to meet the deadline of this 100th anniversary of the grid he has abandoned traditional publishers and, as his acknowledgement states, raises a toast to “the C18th pamphleteers, the Original Guys of self- publishing.”
Perfect For
Power and the People: A History of British Energy
The closest comparable: a history of Britain's energy system combining politics, economics, infrastructure and the people who shaped it.
Climate Realism: Facing the Facts about Energy
Shares OVERCHARGED's challenge to the assumptions behind Britain's energy transition, with a strong focus on economics, policy and what actually works.
The Future of Energy: The 2026 Guide to the Energy Transition
A general-reader guide to the rapidly changing energy landscape, including renewables, storage and AI - but without OVERCHARGED's historical and critical focus on the electricity grid.
Subject Qualifiers & Classifications
BISAC:
- HISTORY / Social History (HIS054000)
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / General (BUS070000)
- SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects (SCI075000)
- TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects (TEC052000)
Thema & BIC:
- Industrialisation and industrial history (NHTK)
- Electrical power generation and distribution industries (KNBL)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) (UYQ)
- Impact of science and technology on society (PDR)
Target Audience: General non-fiction; readers interested in UK energy, climate, technology, economics, and public policy.