National Grid warms coal units as Britain’s sub-zero freeze triggers back-up plan

National Grid’s statement in full said: “We’ve issued a notification to warm two winter contingency coal units. This measure should give the public confidence in Monday’s energy supply.

“This notification is not confirmation that these units will be used on Monday, but that they will be available to the ESO, if required. The ESO as a prudent system operator has these tools for additional contingency to operate the network as normal and the public should continue to use energy as normal.”

The power firm has outlined in its contingency plan for winter the chances of implementing organised blackouts during the coldest months of 2023. In January and February, as part of a a “worst case scenario”, pre-planned power outages may be implemented in certain areas of the country.

This worst case would be if the UK cannot secure enough energy imports from Europe this winter. While bosses repeatedly say this situation would be unlikely, France, which send energy to the UK via interconnections, has been experiencing plummeting nuclear power output due to issues with ageing reactors.

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Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1708348/National-Grid-energy-crisis-coal-units-reserve-UK-big-freeze-latest