Britain’s gas storage levels ‘concerningly low’ after extreme cold, says British Gas owner
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Plunging temperatures and high demand for gas-fired power stations are the main factors behind the low levels, Centrica said. Britain’s gas storage levels are “concerningly low” with less than a week of demand in store, the operator of the country’s largest gas storage site has said.
![[Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive of Centrica]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/25/08/ff8da9954dac7f6e80b2757d7a119d99Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzIxOTc3NDg2-2.76907685.jpg)
Plunging temperatures and high demand for gas-fired power stations are the main factors behind the low levels, Centrica said. The UK utilises a lot of gas to generate power and is mostly dependent on it for home heating. “As of the 9th of January 2025, UK storage sites are 26% lower than last year’s inventory at the same time, leaving them around half full,” Centrica said.
“This means the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store.”. The firm's Rough gas storage site, a depleted field off England's east coast, makes up around half of the country's gas storage capacity. Gas storage was already lower than usual heading into December as a result of the early onset of winter, the firm said. This combined with “stubbornly high” gas prices has made it more difficult to increase storage over Christmas.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said the government is confident the UK has “sufficient gas supply and electricity capacity to meet demand this winter”. “We speak regularly with the national energy system operator to monitor our energy security and ensure they have all tools at their disposal if needed to secure our supply,” he added.
