Households across Britain could face four days of blackouts this winter as the Government prepares for cold weather gas shortages.
Under its worst-case-scenario, the Government is braced to launch emergency measures to conserve gas supplies due to a fall in imports from Norway and France, Bloomberg reported.
It comes as experts say energy bills will soar to around £3,582 in October as inflation skyrockets to 13%.
The runaway costs are largely due to the soaring price of energy, as the fallout from Russian President Vladimir Putin ’s war against Ukraine forced gas prices skywards.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Kit Malthouse said hospitals are preparing for fuel shortages.
"We are making plans for all sorts of contingencies across public services, particularly critical areas like health," Mr Malthouse told Talk TV.
"One of the plans we talk about is coincidence of events, but we need to make sure that all those hospitals that need access to power have their standby generators properly serviced, they've got diesel tanks full with diesel that might be required."
It has since emerged officials are asking food and drink experts if the power outages could lead to empty supermarket shelves, Politics Home reports.
Prices are soaring as supply has become disrupted. Officials are understood to be planning for extreme pressure on the UK’s supply due to disruption to world markets after the Russia ’s war in Ukraine.
It's understood the "reasonable worst-case scenario" document is genuine and was drawn up a few weeks ago to deal with the escalating energy crisis.
However, a government source stressed it was not a reflection of what ministers expect to happen.
They said: "The government creates extreme scenarios and then we model our response to the fake scenario we create for ourselves."
If the winter is particularly cold, the Government may rely more on shipments of gas from Europe, where gas supplies are already tapered thanks to Putin's cuts.
It’s understood the “central” case - rather than the worst-case - shows there are enough electricity and gas supplies to meet demand.
They will be relying more on gas supplies in pipelines across the North Sea from Norway. And three large coal-fired power stations are due remain open all winter instead of closing in September.
A Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy spokesperson said: “This is wilfully misleading and not something we expect to happen.
“We are not dependent on Russian energy imports unlike Europe, with access to our own North Sea gas reserves, steady imports from reliable partners, the second largest LNG port infrastructure in Europe, and a gas supply underpinned by robust legal contracts, meaning households, businesses and industry can be confident they will get the electricity and gas they need.”
