Get ready for power cuts from 4-7pm, families told
British households should prepare for blackouts ‘between 4pm and 7pm’ over the winter, the boss of National Grid has warned.
John Pettigrew said the firm, which oversees the UK’s electricity and gas networks, would need to introduce rolling power cuts on ‘really, really cold’ weekdays in January and February if the UK failed to secure enough natural gas from Europe.
he said the first two months of next year were of particular concern, and a shortage of fuel for gasfired power stations – which generate a large portion of the UK’s power – combined with slow wind speeds and lower imports of electricity from Europe would put strain on the grid.
Mr Pettigrew, National Grid’s chief executive, said that in such a ‘worst case’ scenario, electricity would be cut off for parts of the country ‘probably between 4pm and 7pm in the evenings on those weekdays when it’s really, really cold in January and February’. his warning – at the Financial times’s
Energy transition summit – came after National Grid’s Electricity system Operator (ESO) sounded the alarm earlier this month, saying households and businesses might face planned three-hour outages to ensure the grid does not collapse.
A move to implement blackouts would need approval from the Government as well as King Charles.
As part of its strategy, National Grid will ask people to cut back their power usage. it is also setting up a scheme that will pay households and companies for reducing their demand during periods of limited supply.
The ESO has also struck a deal with three power firms – France’s EDF, British group Drax and German company Uniper – to keep five coal-fired power stations on standby to help meet demand.
the risk of blackouts recalls the 1970s when strikes by miners and railway workers forced ted heath’s government to introduce planned power cuts to conserve energy.
the bleak winter facing Britain comes amid russia slowly choking off gas supplies to Europe after sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine, causing prices to soar on international markets.
‘On really, really cold weekdays’