Plans for Brits to deal with blackouts of up to seven days have been tested by the government amid rising concerns over energy supplies. According to documents it is warned that in a “reasonable worst-case scenario” transport, food and water supply, communications and energy could be “severely disrupted” for up to a week.
The papers, seen by The Guardian, show that priority will be given to getting food, water and shelter to young and elderly people. Carers will also be prioritised.
According to the report a number of exercises have been carried out in government departments and local authorities across the country over recent days under Programme Yarrow - a British government contingency plan for dealing with a power outage.
Yarrow has been in place since 2021 - before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It was initially set up to help deal with any major technical fault on the National Grid.
While this was unrelated to the current energy issues there has been increasing pressure on supply which could increase the potential for blackouts . Both Met Office forecasts for a possible cold winter and the war in Ukraine have meant rising concerns over power supply.
Yarrow prepares for a situation where power is unavailable, without any pre-warning, to all premises without backup generators during winter. The documents show how it envisages that 60% of electricity demand will be met “between day two and day seven” when households and businesses will be given “intermittent access” to ration supply.
Under the electricity supply emergency code, households and businesses will be given 24 hours’ notice of a planned outage. The rota disconnection plan is aimed at cutting power evenly across the country and could be published up to a week ahead on a rolling basis.
Any power outages should initially only take place once a day for three hours but it is warned it could take a further hour for reconnection to take place. In a worst case scenario it would also see only analogue FM radio stations working.
The BBC would only broadcast Radio 2 and Radio 4 by generators. Energy regulator Ofgem and National Grid would restore 100 percent of electricity demand after a week even in a worst-case scenario.
One source is reported to have told The Guardian: “The government doesn’t want any publicity on Yarrow, as they don’t want it to be seen as linked to Ukraine, energy supply and the cost of living. But we need to think about how we can help people in advance. The fact they’re talking about it now means they have a real concern it could happen.”
