Sunday January 08, 2006

UK : Grid alert as families face cold weather power cuts

peakoil.com -> timesonline.co.uk :

Hundreds of thousands of homes across the UK came within hours of power cuts after the National Grid issued an emergency call for electricity companies to reduce demand on one of the coldest days of the year. Power industry sources said that they came very close to cutting about 220,000 homes off for a couple of hours or lowering the voltage to all their customers by 3 per cent.

The highly unusual shortage comes as fears mount over the security of Britain's energy supplies. About 40 per cent of Britain's power stations will be due for retirement in the next 15 years, as all but one of the nuclear power stations are decommissioned and older coal-fired power stations are closed because of new European Union directives on pollution. Britain has also become a net importer of gas, because North Sea supplies have been running out more quickly than expected.

See also :

1. North Sea gas drying up faster than hoped
2. UK oil output : running on empty?
3. British economic growth rate slumps to 12-year low

(2006-01-08 00:14:06 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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