UK FACES ELECTRIC SHOCK
Reliance on Europe for power ‘will land us in big trouble’
THE fishing row which saw France threaten to cut off Jersey’s power has exposed the ‘very dangerous’ threat of being too reliant on a foreign supplier for electricity, an expert said yesterday.
Britain risks becoming an ‘import junkie’ by depending too heavily on the Continent for its electricity needs, it was claimed.
Tony Lodge, a research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, said the UK is setting itself up for ‘almighty trouble’ by the end of the decade.
He warned that Britain is offshoring its energy security and emissions to Europe, leaving it vulnerable if the Continent’s surplus of power is reduced.
On Tuesday French maritime minister Annick Girardin said Paris would cut off electricity to Jersey – which gets 95 per cent of its power supply from France – if the dispute was not resolved. Mr Lodge yesterday said this had ‘ inadvertently exposed’ the ‘very dangerous’ threat of being too reliant on a foreign supplier.
He said: ‘We have slowly offshored our ability to generate all of the electricity we need... We followed European Union diktat when we were in the EU to close a lot of coal and oil power stations early, and we haven’t replaced them at home.
‘What we have done is set up interconnectors – undersea cables import power when we need it from the EU.’ He warned: ‘We are going to become import junkies.’
Mr Lodge said when there are cold snaps or power station closures in Europe, electricity generation on the Continent could become tight.
‘The availability of surplus electricity in Europe is a key factor in spare flows and surplus flows that make it to the UK,’ he explained.
He urged the Government to build more power stations in Britain so it can generate electricity on demand.
He said: ‘ Renewables are fine... because of course electricity demand doesn’t always match when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. So we need to balance that much better.’ Mr Lodge said Britain has several plans under way to increase reliance on power from Europe.
He added there were ‘posturing’ reports that the Government could review its energy links with France in light of the Jersey row.
But a Whitehall source sought to downplay the claims that the UK may in future take a more cautious view of France as an energy partner.
Britain imports around 8 per cent of its power from foreign nations and Northern Ireland via underwater cables – due to rise to 25 per cent.
Last night a Government spokesman said: ‘The UK has a robust domestic energy supply from diverse sources, which we are confident will ensure security of supply in all scenarios.’