Blackout fears as four nuclear plants stay shut until the winter
DELAYS in restarting four key nuclear power stations after a safety shutdown could bring an electricity crisis this winter.
The shutdowns have dangerously narrowed the gap between demand and the amount which National Grid can supply to homes and businesses.
The squeeze is now likely to step up the regime where major energy users, such as factories, are paid millions to shut down in peak evening periods.
This strict measure is vital to protect homes and families by ensuring there is enough electricity on the grid to keep the lights and heating on.
Separately, National Grid has asked power firms to boost supplies this winter to cover the threatened shortfall.
The problems will be seen as further evidence that Britain’s dilapidated energy supply system cannot meet the nation’s needs.
Critics will also point to the decision to spend billions on green energy. Fears over
‘We will be cutting it to the bone’
winter supplies were prompted by the temporary shutdown of four nuclear reactors at Heysham and Hartlepool owned by EDF Energy.
A crack was found in a boiler at one of them in August and the closure was initially expected to be short term.
But now the French power giant is warning there will be only be a ‘phased return’ between the end of October and the end of December.
Analyst Peter Atherton, of Liberum Capital, said: ‘These are old reactors and when you go to solve one problem, you often find another you didn’t know about.
‘That could put them out of action for months. Losing these power stations also means we have lost the very small amount of fat in the system.
‘If the weather’s unusually bad or there isn’t enough wind or some- thing else goes wrong, then we will be cutting it to the bone.’ Regulator Ofgem and National Grid, which runs the power distribution network, will pay major energy users £75million in the next two years to turn off l i ghts and machines on weekday winter afternoons. The cost will go on to the bills of homes and businesses. Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, said this sort of drastic action might be expected in a Third World nation.
‘This can’t be a sustainable way of managing the energy system,’ he added. ‘Industry has to have access to secure power supplies.’
It is unlikely Scotland’s two nuclear power stations will be able to make up any shortfall. Work began only last month on a major overhaul at Hunterston in Ayrshire.
EDF Energy is investing more than £20million to extend the working life of the plant, which opened in 1976, by a further seven years.
It was scheduled to be decommissioned in 2011 but will now generate electricity until 2023.
Station director Colin Weir said: ‘We have to look at what’s ageing and replace some components.’
The nuclear plant at Torness in East Lothian began operating in 1988 and is due to be decommissioned in 2023.