The United Kingdom is not afraid of winter blackouts
The risk of winter power outages in the UK has dropped to its lowest level in four years, despite the recent closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar, the country’s last coal-fired power plant. This improvement is partly due to investments in low-emission sources of electricity. The UK system operator, The National Energy System Operator (Neso), forecasts that this winter, energy supply in the UK will exceed demand by almost 9% in the base case scenario, marking the largest surplus since the 2019/2020 season. The higher power reserve is attributed to an increase in energy storage systems, small renewable energy installations, and electricity imports.
This winter, the UK will rely on record levels of imported electricity, for the first time since the launch of the world’s longest high-voltage cable, which brings energy from Denmark sufficient to power 2.5 million UK homes. The Viking interconnector, which can also export UK energy to Denmark, is a key part of the UK’s strategy to fully phase out fossil fuels in the near future.
The UK still depends on gas
The UK energy sector is not yet able to go through the upcoming winter fully emission-free — a significant portion of the energy mix still comes from gas. During the European gas crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the UK kept old coal plants on standby to ensure energy supplies in case of a gas shortage needed to power power plants. However, this winter the country can rely on gas storage filled to 95%. Additionally, the UK plans to import gas from Norway, the USA, or Qatar. According to Neso, the conflict in Ukraine does not pose a threat to UK gas supplies or energy security.
The operator also plans to continue the subsidy system for households and businesses that use energy-consuming devices wisely, trying to operate them during off-peak hours to reduce the strain on the grid. Thanks to this practice, last year, they managed to save enough energy to power 10 million homes.
Source: theguardian.com