UK Gears Up For Blackouts In Winter For Emergency Energy Plans

The UK is facing the brunt of the energy crisis and plans are underway for organised blackouts in January.

Energy bills in UK forecast to hit $4,401 amid cost-of-living crisis

(Photo: The Quint)

The UK has been planning for organised blackouts for industry and even households which might last for several says due to the upcoming extreme winter combined with gas shortages, according to a report by Bloomberg.

According to the UK government's "reasonable worst-case scenario" Britain might face a shortfall in its electricity capacity by about a sixth of the peak demand even after emergency coal plants have been fired up, the Bloomberg cited people familiar with the UK government's planning.

As per this outlook, reductions in electricity imports from Norway and France and below-average temperatures could subject the UK to four days in January when the country would have to put emergency plans in place to conserve gas.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy released a statement that said the government believes this is "not something we expect to happen" and "households, businesses and industry can be confident they will get the electricity and gas they need."

Even though the UK might not envisage shortfalls under its base case, this analysis shows that there might be the difficult winter in store for the candidate between Rishi Sunak and Lizz Truss who succeeds former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

If the power cuts do take place, then they would come even as Britons face up to average annual energy bills possibly rising above BPN 4,200 ($5,086) in January while it is just under BPN 2,000 currently, already proof of rising inflation.

Britain might have to rely more on pipeline shipments of gas from mainland Europe which are precariously low as Moscow supplies slow down. The UK has little domestic storage capacity and the country has been shipping record amounts of gas to the continent of Europe and will want a return favour when temperatures plunge.