No 10 insists UK has sufficient energy supply despite ‘concerningly low’ gas storage levels
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Centrica says its inventories have fallen by half since early November amid winter cold snap. The UK has enough gas and electricity to meet demand this winter, the government has insisted, after the company that owns the country’s gas stores said levels had become “concerningly low” amid the current cold snap.
Centrica, which also owns British Gas, said on Friday that its inventories had fallen by half since early November, to a quarter below where gas storage levels were at the same time last year. The company blamed the decline to less than a week’s worth of gas – it usually stores a fortnight’s worth – on the early start to a colder than normal winter across the UK and high prices in the global wholesale market.
A No 10 spokesperson said: “We are confident we will have a sufficient gas supply and electricity capacity to meet demand this winter, due to our diverse and resilient energy system. “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.”.
The assurance has emerged days after the UK’s energy system operator was forced to pay about £17m in a single day to keep two gas power plants from turning off during a period of high electricity demand and low wind power output. The costs paid to the gas plants may have been higher, but a high voltage cable bringing electricity from Denmark to the UK via the Viking link agreed to temporarily return from a planned maintenance outage during the peak in the demand for an undisclosed sum.
