This is amazing. Not only are power costs massively expensive and going rise further there’s also a very real risk you won’t be able to use it anyway. Fantastic.
**Ripped from the article:**
Gas power stations could be shut off to ration energy supplies as part of emergency plans to stave off widespread blackouts this winter, insiders have warned.
Sources at two power stations, along with government officials, said they were preparing to “wargame” emergency plans next month, and that they had been asked to review measures to keep Britain’s lights on in the worst-case scenario of dangerously low supplies.
They suggested that drills could take place in September and October, and warned that they could be asked to switch gas stations off in order to ease high network demand.
These efforts go well beyond standard winter resilience planning, reflecting the higher risk amid the worsening energy crisis, and are more detailed than what is laid out in current emergency planning documents, the insiders said.
“We’re wargaming very serious scenarios. These are not unlikely scenarios,” one senior official involved with energy planning said.
**Recommended**
Emergency communication plans are required if the government and National Grid have to take greater control of power generation in the UK, which normally only happens if there is a high risk of prolonged domestic power outages.“
The reality is it’s going to be a very tight winter,” said Nick Wye, director at energy consultancy firm Waters Wye Associates.
“If it’s very cold for an extended period, we can expect tightness, which may lead to customers being asked to reduce or cut off their supplies,” he added.
This includes asking gas-fired power generators to “load-shed” – a process that involves power plants turning off or curbing their operations in a bid to ease the pressure on energy networks by cutting gas consumption.
When asked about the plans, a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “We have one of the most reliable and diverse energy systems in the world, and unlike Europe, we are not dependent on Russian energy imports, meaning households, businesses and industry can be confident they will get the electricity and gas they need.
”However, they did not deny that the UK faced a heightened risk of an energy crisis, with a greater likelihood of days-long blackouts for large numbers of consumers.
They also declined to comment on the activities of the UK and Ireland Gas Planning Emergency Group, which, according to two people familiar with the group’s activities, has been holding extra meetings in an effort to create fresh plans for emergency exercises.
The UK government has placed emphasis on Britain’s relatively low dependency on Russian gas compared with that of its continental European neighbours. However, there is some interdependency between the UK and Europe in the way their electricity is supplied.
The UK receives some power via interconnectors from Norway and France, which power millions of homes each year, according to National Grid.
“Norway has said it might have to ration electricity exports, and France’s output is way down because nuclear power stations are out or limited because they need critical maintenance work,” one senior official working on the UK’s energy resilience warned. “That should worry the UK, when that’s been the key top-up power for our network at crunch times.
“Since closing the Rough undersea gas storage site, the UK only has onshore storage for 10 days’ worth of gas, according to industry experts.
This would not be enough to stave off energy rationing, which could amount to limited usage for more than six hours a day, officials said. “Forget just work from home, this could be an ‘unplug at home’ January,” one said, adding: “There’s no easy way to bank enough power to keep us going.
”If electricity supplies from Norway and France are trimmed, and gas storage runs low, then there is relatively little the UK can do to avoid energy rationing, power generators and government sources said.
**Recommended**
“Power generators are nervous,” Mr Wye said. “Gas storage can only do so much. It’s simply not significant enough in volume to support high domestic gas demand plus additional demand for power generation. It’s just not big enough. It’s not the answer.
”Officials and ministers have also held meetings in recent days to discuss the risk of mass non-payment of energy bills by consumers, industry sources told The Independent.
It comes as energy price forecasts suggest that the average UK energy bill could top £5,000 next year, and amid warnings of a prolonged recession.
Power generators have also asked the government to review the caps placed on the emissions they produce when burning fossil fuels.
Industry sources told The Independent there was a risk they could have to down tools in order to avoid breaching the strict legal limits on the emissions they could produce this winter.
Ok how many of them old class 43 HST’s are still in storage?
Don’t suppose those can just be pulled out and converted into generators?
Paying for a service that isn’t provided? Sounds like theft…
What really pisses me off about this energy crisis is how it was partly the government’s fault. Gas prices fluctuate, but if you have gas storage facilities then you can buy and store it when it’s cheap.
Its a textbook example of how short term cost saving is more expensive in the long run. And now we’re seriously facing blackouts in winter, in the UK, in the 21st century.
Mr Manufacturer can you reduce your energy consumption? Ok but it’ll curtail our output and the wider economy.
Ms Business owner can you reduce your energy consumption? Ok but it’ll curtail our output and the wider economy.
Mr Home Owner with a SmartMeter. We’ve just remotely curtailed your energy usage until 0600hrs on Tuesday morning to reduce your energy consumption. Ok but we’re sat in the dark and the kids are freezing!…..hello? hello?
Shall we play a game?
Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?
Not without power. How about a nice game of chess?
theres a thin line between chaos and civilization and its called electricity
You will pay 5000 to sit in the dark and continue to vote Tory because the newspapers tell you to.
If only the Tories hadn’t ignored reports 10 years ago that they needed to build more nuclear power stations. Please stop voting Tory. Nothing good comes from it.
Just moved here from South Africa where rolling blackouts (government calls it loadshedding) are standard practice. Trying to live your life and work remotely are a nightmare when you’re having to check a timetable to see what hours you will be cut off from the grid.
I really hope it doesn’t come to that here too.
If only we had a way to build things that get power from this wind, sun, tidal, nuclear, wave stuff out country is famous for..
Naaah, cba.
Can’t have an energy crisis without the illusion of scarcity now, can we!
Its just laughable at this point. We’re going to be paying £400 a month just to have blackouts and have our energy rationed anyway?…like hell will I be paying if that’s the case.
Hmm, turning off people’s fridges/freezers for days at a time sounds like a great way to deal with our post Brexit food crisis.
Total failure of government in just about every sector. We HAD the means to cope, but the Tories flogged and closed it all. Now muggins has to pay again.
Then, taxpayers will be indirectly billed to rebuild infrastructure (reservoirs, power stations etc) and a decade later the Tories will sell it off to foreign powers again.
This is extremely worrying. I live in an all-electric flat, it’s just occured to me that if the power gets turned off I can’t cook, shower or heat my home. Is that what I have to look forward to this winter? Being cold and hungry in the dark?
To simulate is evidently not enough for media, now it is « to wargame ». Sic.
Hmm m wonder how the boss will take this when working form home…..
….. then again no power can’t check the email to see if he emailed to check I got his email…. 😅
We’re not running out now, due to the heat wave drain on the grid no. We’re war gaming for when I it actually happens this winte- no no there won’t be any power cuts just practicing for the inevita- nope almost said it again we’re preparing for, an emergency… that should do it.
[deleted]
On a serous note. Why does London skyline have to be lit at night? Landmark don’t need lighting , offices block don’t need internal lights left on or decorative external lights just to make the look nice. House or parliament , London eye etc don’t need to be lite up.
There’s a start for the power companies.
I’ll be demanding my standing charge refunded for all blackout days.
This is a real issue for wfh.
There are companies in my industry that don’t have a head office to go into, everyone is wfh. We simply cannot consider blackouts as an option.
You do know this is all nonsense right? BS narrative to justify price hikes by companies who already reporting quadruple profits compared to previous years. Get rid of the Tory cunts lining their and their mates pockets.
If you can possibly afford it, get solar panels and a battery NOW, before the demand for them is so insane you have to wait multiple years for them.
You know, how about we start to build a better solar and long battery storage infrastructure?
With increasing extended periods of sun we could quite possibly be generating our own power and giving excess to the grid, which can be stored in long life and high capacity batteries
If the tories preside over the first return to rolling blackouts since the 70s, they have absolutely no chance of winning the election in 2024. They really ought to be absolutely filling their pants over these kinds of threats.
I’ll be fucked without power. I work from home, and can’t afford to get into the actual office due to train costs and ever rising costs of living.
We’re basically back to 1970s Britain. Well done tories!
Will my standing charge be refunded? I’m paying every day to have access to energy, and they are not providing that. I want my money back
Am I the only one who thinks the Tories are purposefully destroying our country?
They have millions from dogey donors, push through Brexit, everything in the UK is super expensive and doesn’t work, what is their end game?
“The tories are still the best option by a long shot. God knows what Corbyn would have done x”
I think those who think this generation doesn’t have the will to riot, hasn’t considered cutting the whole nation off from the internet for days on end.
Seriously tho, surely long power cuts will lead to people’s freezers defrosting, and loss of food, which I’m sure they’ll refuse to compensate us for.
Sounds like I need to panic buy my electricity now – going to turn on the oven, heaters and all the lights in my house
So many people only thinking of how it will affect their home life. Yes, no elecricity at home will mean no heating or hot water. But shops will also all be closed – no electricity/no tills, and anyone who works with anything involving electricity will also be laid off for those days. So no work = no pay. We’ll all be forced to sit in our (unheated, no lighting) homes, because our work will send us home and not pay us for those days not worked, and we won’t be able to buy food or, well, anything, as the shops will be closed. Which will lead to the food shops being rammed when they do open. Online shopping won’t work because they won’t be able to access computers to take or check your order when the power is off.
So it won’t be as simple as ‘blackouts’.
If society collapses, let’s all find our local Tory and eat them for dinner
Average energy bills of £5,000 per year.
How the fuck is 90% of the population supposed to pay that? Are we supposed to burn granny, in order to keep our kids warm? Presuming that we also want to eat and go to work.
On your electricity bill next to your address you will see a small box with a capital letter. You can look up that letter in the annex of this document to see at
what times you can expect your supply to be rationed
38 comments
This is amazing. Not only are power costs massively expensive and going rise further there’s also a very real risk you won’t be able to use it anyway. Fantastic.
**Ripped from the article:**
Gas power stations could be shut off to ration energy supplies as part of emergency plans to stave off widespread blackouts this winter, insiders have warned.
Sources at two power stations, along with government officials, said they were preparing to “wargame” emergency plans next month, and that they had been asked to review measures to keep Britain’s lights on in the worst-case scenario of dangerously low supplies.
They suggested that drills could take place in September and October, and warned that they could be asked to switch gas stations off in order to ease high network demand.
These efforts go well beyond standard winter resilience planning, reflecting the higher risk amid the worsening energy crisis, and are more detailed than what is laid out in current emergency planning documents, the insiders said.
“We’re wargaming very serious scenarios. These are not unlikely scenarios,” one senior official involved with energy planning said.
**Recommended**
Emergency communication plans are required if the government and National Grid have to take greater control of power generation in the UK, which normally only happens if there is a high risk of prolonged domestic power outages.“
The reality is it’s going to be a very tight winter,” said Nick Wye, director at energy consultancy firm Waters Wye Associates.
“If it’s very cold for an extended period, we can expect tightness, which may lead to customers being asked to reduce or cut off their supplies,” he added.
This includes asking gas-fired power generators to “load-shed” – a process that involves power plants turning off or curbing their operations in a bid to ease the pressure on energy networks by cutting gas consumption.
When asked about the plans, a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “We have one of the most reliable and diverse energy systems in the world, and unlike Europe, we are not dependent on Russian energy imports, meaning households, businesses and industry can be confident they will get the electricity and gas they need.
”However, they did not deny that the UK faced a heightened risk of an energy crisis, with a greater likelihood of days-long blackouts for large numbers of consumers.
They also declined to comment on the activities of the UK and Ireland Gas Planning Emergency Group, which, according to two people familiar with the group’s activities, has been holding extra meetings in an effort to create fresh plans for emergency exercises.
The UK government has placed emphasis on Britain’s relatively low dependency on Russian gas compared with that of its continental European neighbours. However, there is some interdependency between the UK and Europe in the way their electricity is supplied.
The UK receives some power via interconnectors from Norway and France, which power millions of homes each year, according to National Grid.
“Norway has said it might have to ration electricity exports, and France’s output is way down because nuclear power stations are out or limited because they need critical maintenance work,” one senior official working on the UK’s energy resilience warned. “That should worry the UK, when that’s been the key top-up power for our network at crunch times.
“Since closing the Rough undersea gas storage site, the UK only has onshore storage for 10 days’ worth of gas, according to industry experts.
This would not be enough to stave off energy rationing, which could amount to limited usage for more than six hours a day, officials said. “Forget just work from home, this could be an ‘unplug at home’ January,” one said, adding: “There’s no easy way to bank enough power to keep us going.
”If electricity supplies from Norway and France are trimmed, and gas storage runs low, then there is relatively little the UK can do to avoid energy rationing, power generators and government sources said.
**Recommended**
“Power generators are nervous,” Mr Wye said. “Gas storage can only do so much. It’s simply not significant enough in volume to support high domestic gas demand plus additional demand for power generation. It’s just not big enough. It’s not the answer.
”Officials and ministers have also held meetings in recent days to discuss the risk of mass non-payment of energy bills by consumers, industry sources told The Independent.
It comes as energy price forecasts suggest that the average UK energy bill could top £5,000 next year, and amid warnings of a prolonged recession.
Power generators have also asked the government to review the caps placed on the emissions they produce when burning fossil fuels.
Industry sources told The Independent there was a risk they could have to down tools in order to avoid breaching the strict legal limits on the emissions they could produce this winter.
Ok how many of them old class 43 HST’s are still in storage?
Don’t suppose those can just be pulled out and converted into generators?
Paying for a service that isn’t provided? Sounds like theft…
What really pisses me off about this energy crisis is how it was partly the government’s fault. Gas prices fluctuate, but if you have gas storage facilities then you can buy and store it when it’s cheap.
However from the UK Govt decided it was cheaper to close down our major gas storage facilities in 2017 rather than keep them. [Guardian Article – 2017](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jun/20/uk-gas-storage-prices-rough-british-gas-centrica)
Its a textbook example of how short term cost saving is more expensive in the long run. And now we’re seriously facing blackouts in winter, in the UK, in the 21st century.
Mr Manufacturer can you reduce your energy consumption? Ok but it’ll curtail our output and the wider economy.
Ms Business owner can you reduce your energy consumption? Ok but it’ll curtail our output and the wider economy.
Mr Home Owner with a SmartMeter. We’ve just remotely curtailed your energy usage until 0600hrs on Tuesday morning to reduce your energy consumption. Ok but we’re sat in the dark and the kids are freezing!…..hello? hello?
Shall we play a game?
Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?
Not without power. How about a nice game of chess?
theres a thin line between chaos and civilization and its called electricity
You will pay 5000 to sit in the dark and continue to vote Tory because the newspapers tell you to.
If only the Tories hadn’t ignored reports 10 years ago that they needed to build more nuclear power stations. Please stop voting Tory. Nothing good comes from it.
Just moved here from South Africa where rolling blackouts (government calls it loadshedding) are standard practice. Trying to live your life and work remotely are a nightmare when you’re having to check a timetable to see what hours you will be cut off from the grid.
I really hope it doesn’t come to that here too.
If only we had a way to build things that get power from this wind, sun, tidal, nuclear, wave stuff out country is famous for..
Naaah, cba.
Can’t have an energy crisis without the illusion of scarcity now, can we!
Its just laughable at this point. We’re going to be paying £400 a month just to have blackouts and have our energy rationed anyway?…like hell will I be paying if that’s the case.
Hmm, turning off people’s fridges/freezers for days at a time sounds like a great way to deal with our post Brexit food crisis.
Total failure of government in just about every sector. We HAD the means to cope, but the Tories flogged and closed it all. Now muggins has to pay again.
Then, taxpayers will be indirectly billed to rebuild infrastructure (reservoirs, power stations etc) and a decade later the Tories will sell it off to foreign powers again.
This is extremely worrying. I live in an all-electric flat, it’s just occured to me that if the power gets turned off I can’t cook, shower or heat my home. Is that what I have to look forward to this winter? Being cold and hungry in the dark?
To simulate is evidently not enough for media, now it is « to wargame ». Sic.
Hmm m wonder how the boss will take this when working form home…..
….. then again no power can’t check the email to see if he emailed to check I got his email…. 😅
We’re not running out now, due to the heat wave drain on the grid no. We’re war gaming for when I it actually happens this winte- no no there won’t be any power cuts just practicing for the inevita- nope almost said it again we’re preparing for, an emergency… that should do it.
[deleted]
On a serous note. Why does London skyline have to be lit at night? Landmark don’t need lighting , offices block don’t need internal lights left on or decorative external lights just to make the look nice. House or parliament , London eye etc don’t need to be lite up.
There’s a start for the power companies.
I’ll be demanding my standing charge refunded for all blackout days.
This is a real issue for wfh.
There are companies in my industry that don’t have a head office to go into, everyone is wfh. We simply cannot consider blackouts as an option.
You do know this is all nonsense right? BS narrative to justify price hikes by companies who already reporting quadruple profits compared to previous years. Get rid of the Tory cunts lining their and their mates pockets.
If you can possibly afford it, get solar panels and a battery NOW, before the demand for them is so insane you have to wait multiple years for them.
You know, how about we start to build a better solar and long battery storage infrastructure?
With increasing extended periods of sun we could quite possibly be generating our own power and giving excess to the grid, which can be stored in long life and high capacity batteries
If the tories preside over the first return to rolling blackouts since the 70s, they have absolutely no chance of winning the election in 2024. They really ought to be absolutely filling their pants over these kinds of threats.
I’ll be fucked without power. I work from home, and can’t afford to get into the actual office due to train costs and ever rising costs of living.
We’re basically back to 1970s Britain. Well done tories!
Will my standing charge be refunded? I’m paying every day to have access to energy, and they are not providing that. I want my money back
Am I the only one who thinks the Tories are purposefully destroying our country?
They have millions from dogey donors, push through Brexit, everything in the UK is super expensive and doesn’t work, what is their end game?
“The tories are still the best option by a long shot. God knows what Corbyn would have done x”
I think those who think this generation doesn’t have the will to riot, hasn’t considered cutting the whole nation off from the internet for days on end.
Seriously tho, surely long power cuts will lead to people’s freezers defrosting, and loss of food, which I’m sure they’ll refuse to compensate us for.
Sounds like I need to panic buy my electricity now – going to turn on the oven, heaters and all the lights in my house
So many people only thinking of how it will affect their home life. Yes, no elecricity at home will mean no heating or hot water. But shops will also all be closed – no electricity/no tills, and anyone who works with anything involving electricity will also be laid off for those days. So no work = no pay. We’ll all be forced to sit in our (unheated, no lighting) homes, because our work will send us home and not pay us for those days not worked, and we won’t be able to buy food or, well, anything, as the shops will be closed. Which will lead to the food shops being rammed when they do open. Online shopping won’t work because they won’t be able to access computers to take or check your order when the power is off.
So it won’t be as simple as ‘blackouts’.
If society collapses, let’s all find our local Tory and eat them for dinner
Average energy bills of £5,000 per year.
How the fuck is 90% of the population supposed to pay that? Are we supposed to burn granny, in order to keep our kids warm? Presuming that we also want to eat and go to work.
On your electricity bill next to your address you will see a small box with a capital letter. You can look up that letter in the annex of this document to see at
what times you can expect your supply to be rationed
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/995049/esec-guidance.pdf