‘Close to the limit’: UK blackout concerns deepen as France fears its own energy shortage

Mr Cran-McGreehin said: “The issues at French nuclear power stations, coupled with the potential shortages of gas for power generation on the continent, do mean that the UK is likely to have more difficulty in securing imports this winter – National Grid has included this scenario in its ‘Winter Outlook’, as one of the factors that would make power shortages more likely.

“In theory, we could meet our peak demand without imports, and regardless of wind levels, provided that all other power stations (nuclear, gas, coal, hydro, etc) operated at maximum output – but there are two major issues with that. 

“Firstly, it would be very tight.  We can make the situation easier by using less electricity, especially in the evenings when demand is highest – large industrial customers have had these ‘demand-side response’ (DSR) contracts for decades, and now National Grid is also offering payments to households to cut peak demand.

“Secondly, it’s hard to guarantee that all of those other power plants would operate at maximum output – nuclear and coal power plants in particular have quite a high risk of faults.  National Grid’s ‘Winter Outlook’ assumes a certain likelihood of faults that would reduce power output – that makes the ‘margin’ even tighter, which is why it’s warned of potential shortages.”

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Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1706918/uk-blackout-national-grid-france-energy-shortage