National Grid chief John Pettigrew made the grim warnings for January and February if gas imports run short (Picture: Getty/PA)
The head of the National Grid has warned Brits to prepare for early evening blackouts this winter.
The move could be imposed on households between 4pm and 7pm on ‘really, really cold’ January and February days, if gas imports are reduced, John Pettigrew said.
He suggested the move may be necessary on the ‘deepest, darkest evenings’ if there is not enough gas to meet demand for electricity – particularly during cold snaps.
His comments underlines a similar warning made by the National Grid in an unusual intervention earlier this month.
The grid warned that in the ‘unlikely’ scenario of there not being enough gas, some areas could face three-hour planned outages.
But the organisation was blasted last week for failing to turn off its own lights after working hours – leading to accusations of ‘rank hypocrisy at its best’ amid the energy crisis.
Planned blackouts would have to be approved by Parliament and King Charles and would impact businesses and hospitals – among others – as well as households.
There will be fears that more vulnerable people will suffer more amid freezing temperatures.
The national grid faced criticism for not turning off its own lights (Picture: SWNS)
Concerns about the problem have been simmering across Europe thanks to Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine.
The Russian President has turned off supplies to other countries on the continent, raising fears about energy security, due to the widespread reliance on Russian gas imports.
Speaking at the Financial Times’ Energy Transition Summit yesterday, Mr Pettigrew said UK blackouts could happen in the late afternoon to early evening.
‘In the context of the terrible things that are going on in the Ukraine and the consequences of that [it was] right that we set out what some of the potential risks could be’, he told the paper.
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Mr Pettigrew added that the situation would be worsened if wind speeds during a spell of freezing weather were not high enough to power turbines.
Electricity can also be imported to the UK via undersea cables from other European countries.
Britain does not import gas from Russia but gets around 40% of its electricity from gas-fired power stations.
It also imports gas and electricity from countries reliant on Russian gas.
There are a number of measures in place to avoid blackouts, including putting coal power stations on standby.
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Cold days could see Brits face outages from 4pm – 7pm in January and February.