A government minister has hit back at claims that households and businesses may face planned blackouts this winter. It follows a warning from the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) who said people in the UK could be hit with three-hour outages if power plants cannot be supplied with enough gas to keep running.
Planned blackouts last hit the UK during the 1970s in response to the miners strikes and the oil crisis, and there were also unplanned outages during storms in 1987 when over 1.5 million households were left in darkness. Unless the gas-fired power plants that produce 43 per cent of Britain’s electricity over the last year cannot get enough gas to continue operating, then the National Grid warns we may face a blackout in the 'worst case scenario'.
It is the most dire of three possible scenarios that the ESO laid out on Thursday (October 6) for how Britain’s electricity grid might cope with the worst global energy crisis in decades. The other two scenarios would see paying people to charge their electric cars at off-peak times and firing up backup coal plants which would potentially offset the risk of blackouts.
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But government minister Nadhim Zahawi has now said that planned blackouts this winter are "extremely unlikely".
When pressed about National Grid warnings, The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told Sky News: “We’ve got the second largest LNG processing infrastructure in Europe. Half of our gas we produce here at home, we want to go further – this year we’ve increased our output by 26% on gas.
“We’ve got interconnectors with our neighbours. Now, what the National Grid is saying is the extremely unlikely scenario where there are issues in Europe with the interconnectors and a very cold snap, so it’s extremely unlikely. But it’s only right that we plan for every scenario.
“All I would say is we have a buffer, the same buffer as last year, and so I’m confident that come Christmas, come the cold weather, we will continue to be in that resilient place, but it’s only right we have looked at every scenario.”
Prime Minister Liz Truss has ruled out launching an energy-saving public information campaign amid warnings that blackouts could hit the UK.
Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg is believed to have backed a £15 million campaign this winter, with the Times reporting the idea was blocked by No 10. It added the campaign was seen as “light touch” and included measures designed to help people save up to £300 a year, including lowering the temperature of boilers, turning off radiators in empty rooms and advising people to turn off the heating when they go out.
The newspaper quoted a Government source describing the campaign as a “no-brainer” and said No 10 had made a “stupid decision”, but it added Ms Truss is said to be “ideologically opposed” to such an approach as it could be too interventionist. A Government source approached by the PA news agency said they were not denying the report contained in the Times.
Asked to comment on the report, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy issued a statement on behalf of the Government in which it insisted ministers are not launching a campaign and “any claim otherwise is untrue”.
Prime Minister Ms Truss earlier sought to downplay concerns although stopped short of explicitly offering a guarantee of no blackouts.
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