LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – An emergency planning drill to help the UK get ready for potential gas supply shortages has been doubled in size.
As energy worries increase, possible scenarios—including electricity rationing—will be wargamed over four days as opposed to the customary two.
The administration maintains there wasn’t any risk to the UK’s energy supply and that consumers shouldn’t become alarmed.
Industry, however, claims that ministers need to take more actions to ensure supply this winter.
Governmental organisations, regulators, lobbying groups, and key energy companies will participate in the National Grid exercise, which begins next month.
Since late last year, there has been a global shortage of gas, which has caused the global economy to become unstable, driven up living costs, and forced up household energy expenditures.
According to a BBC Freedom of Information request, Kwasi Kwarteng, the secretary of business, does not appear to have asked government representatives for advice on the prospect of rationing energy before the end of June.
Energy experts were left surprised, especially given that other nations are implementing similar measures.
Due to its investments in nuclear power, renewable energy sources, and the North Sea oil and gas industry, the UK has one of the most “reliable and diverse energy systems in the world.”
Households and companies have been assured by Downing Street that they won’t experience blackouts this winter and have been told not to feel pressured to use less energy.
The measures Mr. Kwarteng could take for rationing electricity, if that becomes essential, are described in the Electricity Supply Emergency Code.
One strategy uses “rota disconnections,” which entails rotationally reducing or shutting off power to some consumers in order to lower the demand.
Professor of electronic and electrical engineering at Strathclyde University. Keith Bell said that shutting off to large industrial customers was a credible scenario that they needed to be prepared for.
Although they have been in place for a long time, he continued, codes detailing what should happen in the case of electricity or gas shortages and who was accountable for what – including the function of the secretary of state – hadn’t had to be employed.
The pandemic has taught them the need of being ready and testing emergency plans to ensure their suitability.
He named two significant supply risks going into winter were the UK’s reliance on foreign gas imports and a lack of storage space.
Nearly 40% of the power generated in the UK last year was produced by burning gas, while 38% of total energy was imported from abroad.
The director of policy for the lobbying organisation UK Onshore Oil and Gas, Charles McAllister explained that right now the UK was at the greatest risk of losing its energy supply in decades.
He added that the annual energy exercise would determine how much demand, particularly from heavy industry, could be lowered to reduce supply risk.Â
Two industry sources stated that the exercise’s extension to four days was caused by the challenging energy situation throughout the world and how seriously those preparations were being taken.
According to a source, one scenario covered during the two-day exercise last year featured cutting off large users of gas in response to a pumping station issue.
While this is happening, some significant economies, including Germany and France, have come up with plans for energy rationing in the event that Russia, a significant gas supplier to Europe, turns off the taps this winter.
Since the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted and Russian supply lines were disrupted by the Ukraine war, gas demand has surged significantly, leading to a substantial spike in energy costs.
