Government Turning Blind Eye to Energy Shortages - Hemming

12.00.00am GMT Sat 31st Dec 2005

The Chairman of the Independent Energy Scrutiny Panel, John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP, has responded to the revelation that National Grid issued a "Notice of Insufficient Supply Margin" on Thursday.

"We should not be surprised by this. The potential threat either to reduce voltage by 3% (a brownout) or cut off supply to 200,000 homes (a blackout) would arise in a situation in which the Electricity Supply Margin remained insufficient."

"The UK was lucky that last Thursday's weather happened during the Christmas Week. Demand for gas and electricity is less during the Christmas week. Gas demand drops by about 50 million cubic metres. Electricity demand is also substantially less. Thursday's Gas Demand was the highest for winter so far. "

"The challenge for the UK is the interface between gas and electricity supply. If we encounter similar weather during the working week we will depend upon available distillate in those CCGTs (combined cycle gas turbines) that can use distillate. Any extended period of weather of this nature will tighten the situation further."

"This could see "Exercise Ostrich", where the National Grid did a dry run in September 2005 for the cut off of supply to major users of gas, being brought in for real."

"The government can still do a number of things to improve the situation, but they seem to be turning a blind eye to the problem."