February 2013

Millions Of Homes At Risk Of Blackouts Following EU Environmental Directive

ONE million homes narrowly escaped a power cut last month as bitterly cold weather placed a massive strain on Britain’s creaking electricity network.

As stated by Alistair Buchanan, the outgoing head of energy Ofgem, there were nearly a million homes without power until National Grid was able to find power to supply them.  This was due to unexplained outages and cold weather.  One of the power stations that responded was Fawley, an oil-fired plant in Hampshire.  By winter 2014 Fawley will no longer be running - one of many oil power stations being forced into retirement by the EU to comply with environmental targets.  This is combined with Britian's nuclear power stations shutting down as they are now reaching the end of their working lives.  Currently these nuclear power stations have no replacements scheduled, although the Governent has committed to build new ones.  This will lead us to a very real chance of powercuts during extreme weather across the next two years.