Britain’s electricity system is ‘highly resilient’, says minister
Michael Shanks said the UK was not affected by the power cuts in Spain and Portugal but the Government continues to prepare for ‘all eventualities’.
Britain’s electricity system is “highly resilient”, energy minister Michael Shanks has said in a bid to reassure MPs following Spain and Portugal’s widespread blackouts.
Power has largely been restored across the Iberian Peninsula, but not before the outage grounded flights, paralysed train systems and disrupted mobile communication.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Shanks said the UK had not been affected by the power cuts but the Government continues to prepare for “all eventualities”.
In a statement on energy grid resilience, he said: “I would like to reassure the House that Great Britain has a highly resilient energy network, and the incident in Iberia has not impacted Great Britain.
“The Secretary of State has been in regular contact with the National Energy System Operator, the Neso, over the past two days, and they have provided reassurance that there is no increase in risk to our energy supplies or system stability from this incident.”
Mr Shanks added: “An event similar in impact to this incident in Great Britain would be the equivalent of a national power outage, which is the total loss of power across the whole of GB. This risk is listed on the national risk register as a high-impact but low-likelihood event.”
He said the Government is prepared “for all eventualities no matter how unlikely”, adding: “This includes having robust emergency plans, summarised in the national emergency plan for downstream gas and electricity, and regularly exercising emergency plans with the energy industry and Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets).”
Shadow energy minister Andrew Bowie said: “We cannot get away from the fact that this Government’s plans to rush ahead to build a grid that is entirely dependent on the wind and the sun, in just five years’ time, makes our electricity grid significantly less reliable.”
He added: “Data from Neso (National Energy System Operator) shows that the inertia in our grid has been steadily decreasing over time, as gas and coal have come off the system to be replaced by wind and solar. This comes with a hefty price tag.
“And this is the problem with so much of the party opposite’s approach to energy security. Because of their imposed targets, they are saddling the British people with mountains of extra costs as they rush ahead towards a power system that depends on the weather rather than firm, reliable base load.”
In his response, Mr Shanks said the Government’s “first priority” is to “ensure energy security”, adding: “We have a resilient grid in this country. It’s important to continue to have that – that means building new grid infrastructure which (Mr Bowie) quite often opposes, along with a number of his colleagues.”
Mr Shanks also said the Government “will implement any lessons” from investigations by the Spanish and Portuguese authorities on the cause of the power outages.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice called for increased transparency from the National Energy System Operator.
He said: “Just before the Spanish blackouts, we had two outages that were unexpected, one in Lincolnshire and one on the other end of the Viking link that the Neso was not going to tell us about, but thanks to a whistleblower we now know about.
“It seems to me, with the ever increasing reliance on renewables, and many are concerned about the fluctuations from the voltage and that becoming a serious risk, whilst the minister is confident, will he confirm to the House that actually the Neso will tell us and be completely transparent about all future unexpected outages?”
Mr Shanks said the network is “incredibly resilient and robust” but there are “outages for a whole range of reasons”.
He continued: “The system continues to function, as indeed it entirely did, without any concern at all on the instance that he raises.
“So this, while it’s not a regular occurrence… outages do happen in any system, and particularly in the energy system across the whole of the UK.
“I will take away the point about if there is any more transparency, but I suspect the answer will be that this is the day-to-day operational running of the electricity system, and it’s not something to be alarmed about at all.”
Labour MP for Basingstoke Luke Murphy described Mr Tice as “the honourable Inspector Clouseau for Boston and Skegness”, saying he “has already jumped to blaming renewables for this issue”.
He went on: “Isn’t it the case that the benches opposite want to weaponise this because of their ideological obsession against clean energy, which will leave my constituents colder and poorer while they enjoy the warm embrace of Vladimir Putin?”
Mr Shanks replied: “Any sensible member of this House, I am sure, will await the full response of any investigation that will be carried out by the authorities relevant in this case, rather than just jumping to speculation.”
