With power plants being shut down left, right and centre, fears over potential blackouts increase. As the government focus on hitting new carbon targets and new environmental legislation, coal, nuclear and gas plants are being closed and dismantled with devastating effects on the UK power supply.
Even with an increased push for demand-side response and capacity margins, Ofgem are warning that back up supplies could be used up within 18 months.
“Our analysis shows that the Lole (loss of load expectations) could range between two and 15 hours per year for our central view of the risks (corresponding to margins between 0% and 4%),” Ofgem states with regard to the 2016-17 winter period.
National Grid have had to provide further subsidies as a result to encourage companies to keep power stations open which is almost sure to increase household bills further.
It also increases Britain’s dependence on carbon-intensive energy rather than the preferred renewable energy.
Through various subsidies, National Grid has secured 2.56 gigawatts of additional “balancing services” to boost supplies this winter but these costs will be passed on to the customer.
Even more worrying that government subsidies have now been brought to an end, leaving the situation to grow ever worse. It remains to be seen where we’ll be in 18 months when the supply has depleted.
Let’s hope that more energy will be available when we hit this crucial point.
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