UK gas reserves plunge to ‘concerning’ low with just a week of supply left
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UK gas stores have fallen to “concerningly low” levels amid freezing cold temperatures, the owner of British Gas has said. Centrica said the UK now has less than a week’s worth of demand for gas in store. On Thursday, stocks at UK gas storage sites were 26% lower than the same period last year, leaving them about half full, the energy giant said.
Gas inventory levels have come under pressure from the cold weather conditions and the end of Russian gas pipeline supplies through Ukraine at the end of last month. Centrica boss Chris O’Shea said the levels are “concerningly low”. He said the clean energy transition would mean the UK needs to use more energy storage systems to help meet demand.
“We are an outlier from the rest of Europe when it comes to the role of storage in our energy system and we are now seeing the implications of that. “Energy storage is what keeps the lights on and homes warm when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, so investing in our storage capacity makes perfect economic sense.
“We need to think of storage as a very valuable insurance policy.”. Centrica operates the country’s largest gas storage site, Rough, a facility under the North Sea off the east coast of England. Despite being full ahead of winter, current gas inventory at Rough is about 20% lower than at the same time last year, the company said.
