There are fears that winter blackouts may still be necessary after a gas deal between the UK and Norway broke down.
It's after Britain attempted to buy decades worth of gas over worries that supplies could run low over the colder months.
The 20-year, multi-billion pound deal with gas firm Equinor would have met Britain's energy needs against the risk of shortages over the coming winter months, the Sun reports.
But following months of negotiations, the asking price was deemed too high for the Treasury to move forward with.
Gas prices have quadrupled in the last year - and the UK could have been overpaying by eyewatering figures if it had secured a gas discount based on today's market prices, which could drop again once prices settle.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who attended the COP27 summit in Egypt this week, is now reportedly planning to agree a gas deal that was negotiated by his predecessor Liz Truss and US President Joe Biden, with the confirmation possibly coming at the G20 summit in Bali next week.
While gas supplies will be secured this winter should the deal be signed, the cost to the public purse, and the planet, could be felt for years to come.
Meanwhile, it was previously reported that the National Grid had issued a warning to UK households that blackouts could become a reality as winter hits its peak and icy weather takes hold.
John Pettigrew, National Grids CEO, said this was a "worst-case scenario", but the government has nonetheless been creating emergency plans to cope with the energy blackouts.
These could last up to seven days in the event of a national power outage as worries grow over the security of supplies.
The government had been stress-testing Programme Yarrow, a confidential plan put in place for power outages.
This pre-dated the current energy crisis hitting millions of households and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as it was instead created in 2021 in an effort to improve planning in the event of a major fault on the National Grid.
Within the backup plan, ministers would focus on getting food, water and shelter to the young and elderly people, alongside those with caring responsibilities, should the country experience blackouts.
And in the plan's worst-case scenario, only analogue FM radios would work, with just BBC Radio 2 and 4 broadcasting.
It was previously revealed that the BBC prepared secret scripts that could be read on air if energy shortages cause blackouts or the loss of gas supplies for Brits this winter.
This is due to uncertainties around local radio as some stations only have a few hours of backup generator cover.
There are also plans for more severe situations.
These include three-hour rolling blackouts, as announced last month.
These will "probably [be] between 4pm and 7pm in the evenings on those weekdays when it’s really, really cold in January and February", with the Met Office predicting low temperatures.
A Government spokesperson said at the start of the month: "As a responsible government, it is right that we plan for all potential scenarios and work with the industry to prepare and exercise robust contingency plans.
"This work is ongoing continuously and is an important strand of our national resilience planning.
"Local and national exercises are a part of this ongoing work and ensure we are able to effectively respond to any wide range of scenarios, no matter how unlikely they may be."
