UK National Grid warns of 3-hour power cuts in winter

The National Grid power authority in Britain has issued a warning about possible power cuts this winter in case of electricity and gas shortages.

Britain could face planned power cuts to homes and businesses this winter if it is unable to import electricity from Europe, Britain’s National Grid warned on Thursday.

The British government's power authority admitted that it was struggling to attract enough gas imports to fuel its gas-fired power plants.

“We are confident in our plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter,” the government’s department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said in a statement.

Energy regulator: UK facing 'significant risk' of gas shortage, possible emergency in winter

Britain

“To strengthen this position further, we have put plans in place to secure supply and National Grid, working alongside energy suppliers and Ofgem, will launch a voluntary service to reward users who reduce demand at peak times,” it added.

The warning comes as the UK's Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss said on Thursday that she planned to call on European leaders to help by sharing their electrical power resources with the Britons during the cold winter season and keep energy exports flowing when consumption goes up.

Turss, in an op-ed in The Times newspaper, asked for help from France, Belgium and the Netherlands to supply Britain with energy to avoid blackouts, saying the UK's neighbors ought to commit to keeping the energy flowing through undersea cables and pipelines during winter to keep "the lights on across the continent."

Truss is expected to state her request for energy at the first European Political Community (EPC) summit in Prague that kicked off on Thursday.

The EPC summit has brought together the 27 leaders of the European Union with 17 leaders from the continent currently outside the club, including Britain, Turkey, Norway and Ukraine.

The summit comes as the new British government faces serious problems at home, with Truss having to make a humiliating U-turn on Monday on some tax plans that caused chaos in UK's financial situation.

Embarrassing U-turn: UK govt. forced to ditch plan to slash top rate of tax

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has been forced to reverse plans to scrap the highest rate of income tax, after the move caused rebellion among the lawmakers and turmoil in the country

Truss' now-defunct tax policy had aimed to cut government tax for the upper class and instead borrow to cover the increased budget deficit while letting the soaring inflation to rise higher, and markets reacted by pushing interest rates up and the pound down.

Analysts assessed the fresh British government's disastrous new "growth plan" as an intellectual and moral disaster.

Harsh winter is coming

As harsh winter is on the horizon and energy consumption would go up, the disruption of flows of gas from Russia because of the war in Ukraine has prompted countries across Europe to draw up winter contingency plans to cope with the energy crisis unprecedented in decades.

The sanctions that have been imposed by the West on Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine have come in the way of Moscow's ability to provide the continent with energy.

Nord Stream sabotage

The Nord Stream 2 Pipeline is no longer leaking natural gas. But the act of sabotage and who did it remains unsolved.

Early last month, the Kremlin said gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would not resume in full until the Western countries reached a collective decision and lifted the sanctions.

The Russian gas giant Gazprom indefinitely suspended natural gas flows to Europe via Nord Stream 1 pipeline amid the worsening energy crisis on the continent.

Russia indefinitely suspends Nord Stream gas pipeline to Europe

The Russian gas giant Gazprom has indefinitely suspended natural gas flows to Europe via Nord Stream 1 pipeline amid a worsening energy crisis in the continent.

The European Union accused the Kremlin of cutting gas supplies in retaliation for the sanctions; Moscow, however, has insisted that the sanctions have made the technical maintenance of the pipeline very difficult for the Russian company.

Russia launched operations in Ukraine on February 24, with a declared objective of “demilitarizing” the ex-Soviet country’s eastern territories.

Cost of living crisis

Thousands of people across the UK have held "Enough is Enough" rallies to protest against the rising cost of living and soaring inflation in Britain.

"People can't continue to live like this," said a protester at one of the rallies in London.

He said protesters want the government to increases workers' pay to match the soaring inflation, unprecedented in 40 years.

UK inflation highest in a decade and rising

The UK inflation rate has hit the highest figure for almost a decade, with surging energy prices believed to be driving that increase.

"I have colleagues at work who have worked out their weekly money and they can't afford to actually live once they pay their fuel bills and once they pay all the other rising costs," the protester said.

"One of my colleagues, his rent's gone up 17 percent just last week, 17 percent! We're not getting any kind of pay raise like that. Our pay raise at the moment was something about 8 percent. That's a massive pay cut for us."

Economic analysts have observed that in the past 10 years of Conservative governments, the UK has experienced stagnated productivity, investment and wages.

Very few economists think the new Conservative prime minister's ideas will yield positive results. 

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