Whilst the National Grid has confirmed it is preparing for the possibility of having to hold three-hour blackouts in parts of the UK this winter, in an effort to protect the network and to stop it from potentially collapsing, officials have said the need to have a blackout is "unlikely".
Earlier, staff at the National Grid's Electricity System Operator (ESO) said the National Grid, one of the world's largest electricity and gas distribution companies, was facing a "challenging" winter after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and amid an energy crisis - and so it had begun planning for what could happen if Britain was unable to import electricity from Europe and/or had insufficient gas supplies.
The ESO said UK households and businesses might have to face interruptions to their electricity supplies, in the form of planned three-hour outages, to ensure the National Grid doesn't collapse - while people could be offered money back on their bills if they agree to only use homeware products that use lots of electricity, such as washing machines and tumble driers, outside of peak times. It's understood the National Grid want to reduce total consumption of electricity by 5%.
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But, importantly, the ESO has also explained that this situation is a worst case scenario - that is, it's unlikely to need to happen, but needs to be prepared for anyway. The potential need for planned blackouts is just one of three scenarios discussed by the Operator on Thursday, October 6 - the other two involve paying people to charge their electric cars at off-peak times and firing up backup coal plants, to partly reduce electricity supplies, at least at peak times, which should ward off the need for the blackouts.
Other ways the operator is looking to save electricity include encouraging members of the public to use high-power items at off-peak times, ie. running their washing machine overnight rather than in the middle of the day, and encouraging businesses to shift their times or energy use, or change to batteries and generators in peak times, an idea that's being named the "demand flexibility service" which will run from November to March.
With these methods in place, energy consumption would be significantly decreased - at least at peak times- and so the need for a blackout would also significantly decrease.
Without the scheme, if any given day this winter were to be cold but still (ie. no wind for wind-power), the ESO could need to halt electricity supply to some customers, for limited periods of time, as there would be high demand for electricity but no wind-power to help supplement the power.
“In the unlikely event we were in this situation, it would mean that some customers could be without power for pre-defined periods during a day – generally this is assumed to be for three-hour blocks,” the ESO said.
Responding to the ESO's proposals, a spokesperson for the UK government said: “The UK has a secure and diverse energy system. We are confident in our plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter, in light of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.
"To strengthen this position further, we have put plans in place to secure supply and National Grid, working alongside energy suppliers and Ofgem, will launch a voluntary service to reward users who reduce demand at peak times."
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