Brits could be plunged into darkness this winter with the coldest months yet to come amidst a cost-of-living crisis.
The 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.
Documents marked “official sensitive” warn that in a “reasonable worst-case scenario”, all sectors including transport, food and water supply, communications and energy could be “severely disrupted” for up to a week during the blackouts, the Guardian reports.
What could this mean for households up and down the UK?
There are three main things that could happen.
Food transported to the most vulnerable during blackouts
Plans suggest that ministers will focus on getting food, water and shelter to the young and elderly people, alongside those with caring responsbilities, should the country experience blackouts.
A series of exercises with government departments and councils across the country are understood to have happened in recent days to stress-test the process.
The type of technical fault that could lead to these systems being implemented include flood damage or a lightning strike on a substation, as well as an attack by a hostile state on sub-sea power cables.
Emergency broadcasts on Radio 2 and Radio 4
In the plan's worst-case scenario, only analogue FM radios would work, with just BBC Radio 2 and 4 broadcasting.
It was previously revealed that the BBC prepared secret scripts that could be read on air if energy shortages cause blackouts or the loss of gas supplies for Brits this winter.
This is due to uncertainties around local radio as some stations only have a few hours of backup generator cover.
Programme Yarrow is in place for where power is unavailable, without any pre-warning, to all premises without backup generators during winter.
In the plans, it's thought that 60 per cent of electricity demand will be met “between day two and day seven” - this is when households and businesses will be given “intermittent access” to ration supply.
An agreement between energy regulator Ofgem and National Grid requires that 100 per cent of the electricity demand should be restored after a week.
Three-hour rolling blackouts
There are, however, plans for more servere situations.
These include three-hour rolling blackouts, as announced last month.
These will "probably [be] between 4pm and 7pm in the evenings on those weekdays when it’s really, really cold in January and February", with the Met Office predicting low temperatures.
And under the electricity supply emergency code, households and businesses will be given 24 hours’ notice of a planned outage.
The plan, which is designed to cut power evenly across the country, could be published up to a week ahead on a rolling basis to allow those to prepare as necessary.
National Grid has also composed an incentive strategy, which could come in this month, and will pay companies and households to reduce their demand during tight supply periods.
Labour's Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband said: "All governments do contingency planning for worst-case scenarios but the truth is that we are vulnerable as a country as a direct consequence of a decade of failed Conservative energy policy.
“Banning onshore wind, slashing investment in energy efficiency, stalling nuclear and closing gas storage have led to higher bills and reliance on gas imports, leaving us more exposed to the impact of Putin’s use of energy as a geopolitical weapon.”
"That’s what causes the concern in government. It is prudent [to plan for outages]. It’s a shame it takes a crisis to have this conversation.”
A Government spokesperson told the Mirror: "As a responsible government, it is right that we plan for all potential scenarios and work with the industry to prepare and exercise robust contingency plans.
"This work is ongoing continuously and is an important strand of our national resilience planning.
"Local and national exercises are a part of this ongoing work and ensure we are able to effectively respond to any wide range of scenarios, no matter how unlikely they may be."
