Ed Miliband’s Net Zero agenda will leave Britain in the dark

Energy companies are already warning their customers about the power cuts to come

As the days get colder and the nights get darker, how worried should the UK be about losing power? While the Labour government boasts about making the country a ‘clean energy superpower’ with the help of renewables, the public is receiving an altogether different message.

Energy companies are starting to let on that all is not quite well. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) is currently delivering leaflets to remind people to sign up to the Priority Services Register, a UK-wide service which lets your power company know you might need extra help during a power outage.

SSEN promises to grant free help to those who are disabled, chronically ill, live with children under five or have ‘any mental-health condition’. It will proactively ‘contact you in advance if your electricity needs to be switched off to carry out essential maintenance’. This will allow people to plan ahead to ‘charge your electric vehicle or prepare flasks for hot drinks’. During a power cut, you’ll be able to contact SSEN 24 hours a day to get updates. For those with medical equipment reliant on electricity, the network will also ‘prioritise help during prolonged power cuts to those that need it most’.

Certainly, it’s good that SSEN is looking out for those who may be vulnerable during outages. It will even work with local authorities, emergency services and agencies such as the British Red Cross to provide food trucks in central locations during prolonged power cuts.

Still, for SSEN to put out a leaflet like this now suggests it knows something that we don’t. According to a National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) report published in June, the UK should have plenty of surplus electricity capacity for emergencies, even during peak demand periods. This should, the report says, ‘more than offset plant retirements’ in 2024.

And yet, a report from London consultants Public First predicts that demand could soon outpace supply. By 2028, demand during peak times, such as winter evenings, might be as much as 7.5GW higher than capacity. One reason for this is that Hinkley Point C, where two 1.6GW reactors are due to start generating power in 2027, could be delayed until 2031.

The current picture could end up being a lot worse, given that both reports were published before Labour’s Ed Miliband became energy secretary. Since then, he has confirmed that he would eschew new gas from the North Sea, and wavered over plans for a nuclear power plant at Wylfa in Wales. The latter was supposed to be a site for significant nuclear generation in the 2030s, as announced by the Tory government in May. Miliband’s big idea is to instead power the country with renewables. But wind and solar are intermittent. The amount of electricity they produce varies depending on the weather. A dark, windless winter day might not produce much electricity, but we would still all need to heat and power our homes.

Sooner or later, there could be trouble. Imported electricity is set to power nearly 11million homes in 2024, a 46 per cent increase in the supply of electricity compared with the record year of 2021. French nuclear and Norwegian hydroelectric form the UK’s chief sources of overseas supply, but in any European energy crisis, we can fully expect these countries to look after their own.

The prospect of regular blackouts and outages – especially prolonged ones – is incredibly concerning. People could die of hypothermia. Business and overseas trade would be hit. Crime and disorder would spread to city after city. It is a situation any sensible government would want to avoid at all costs.

If Labour continues to drive us down the path to that mythical goal of Net Zero, none of us should be surprised to see more power cuts, more often. The green agenda will leave Britain in the dark.

Photo: File ID 195658160 | © Dominic Dudley | Dreamstime.com