Blame Labour green politics for power cuts

The fragility of the National Grid, which crashed on August 9 causing chaos, can be traced back to Ed Miliband’s days as Energy Secretary from 2008 to 2010 and his immediate successors in the Department of Energy.

Terrified of being labelled ‘nongreen’, they set us on the road to relying on inflexible generation sources (such as wind power) that cannot respond to fluctuations in our demand or failures of other suppliers. They have continued decommissioning power stations that could respond to fluctuations.

So today, as one of the most technically advanced countries on the planet, we have to rely on a third-world National Grid.

Let’s stop using the term ‘renewable energy’ and replace it with ‘inflexible energy’ that cannot prevent our lights from going out.

Brian Christley, Abergele, Conwy

There have been several warnings over the years about the flimsiness of our national system of electrical power generation, and I hope your warning from political analyst Richard North that next time the lights could go out for weeks is a wake-up call.

Behind this scandal is an even greater scandal. It was obvious North Sea oil and gas wouldn’t last for ever, and that when the deposits became exhausted, as they now are, we would need to find alternative means of power. The enormous wealth it generated should have provided the means to build alternative nuclear or non-nuclear power stations but this was never done.

Furthermore, the money made from North Sea oil and gas should have secured our financial future but it seems to have been frittered away. From its oil and gas, Norway created a sovereign wealth fund that will secure its financial future for decades. Why is Britain not in the same financial situation?

Roger White, Louth, Lincolnshire

The recent power cuts show the folly of removing coal from the energy equation. We have millions of tons underneath our feet. And I’m sure today’s engineers could ensure that it would cause less pollution these days. Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby I found it entirely laughable that the Director of Operations for the National Grid, Duncan Burt, had the temerity to claim ‘the system worked well’ during the shocking power cuts. The National Grid probably doesn’t want to admit it but hackers are likely to have caused these cuts.

Edna Jones, Skelmorlie, North Ayrshire

I am not surprised at the power generation failure at Ipswich Hospital during the power cuts. A company I worked for installed its back-up system years ago. We warned the hospital that the tests it wanted us to carry out on the system were not recommended and could result in problems later on but the hospital management refused to accept our advice. Name and address supplied