National Grid sparked panic this evening after an automated alert said the firm's capacity was "tight" and warned of blackouts - before cancelling it.
The firm put out a warning that homes could experience power issues tonight causing panic at 7pm this evening.
The alert was later cancelled.. It had originally said there was would be a tight margin when consumption would naturally increase as people come home from work and school.
On Twitter National Grid ESO wrote: "The ESO has now withdrawn the Capacity Market Notice issued at 2:33pm today."
Earlier it wrote: "The ESO is confident that electricity margins are sufficient for this evening. However, a capacity market notice (CMN) has been triggered by the automated system.
"CMN forecasts are issued automatically and are only based on information in the public domain. They do not take into account all the factors which our engineers are working on.
The National Grid issues warnings when supplies are likely to be under pressure. This comes when insufficient power is being generated to supply the demand across the country.
The National Grid website says: "The notices are intended to be a signal that the risk of a System Stress Event in the GB electricity network is higher than under normal circumstances."
One worried person on Twitter wrote: "National grid has apparently announced that its struggling to cope with the amount of energy being used in the UK and we could have a blackout from 7pm tonight. Let’s hope it’s a bunch of b****t and doesn’t happen."
Another added: "So, the National Grid warns about possible blackouts tonight and then cancels the alert...we haven't even had a frost yet."
It comes as National Grid had previously issued a warning to UK households that blackouts could become a reality as winter hits its peak and icy weather bites.
John Pettigrew, National Grids CEO, said this was a "worst-case scenario", but the government has nonetheless been creating emergency plans to cope with the energy blackouts.
These could last up to seven days in the event of a national power outage as worries grow over the security of supplies.
The government is currently stress-testing Programme Yarrow, a confidential plan put in place for power outages.
This pre-dates the current energy crisis hitting millions of households and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as it was instead created in 2021 in an effort to improve planning in the event of a major fault on the National Grid.
