Britain’s electricity system is “highly resilient”, energy minister Michael Shanks has said in a bid to reassure MPs following Spain and Portugal’s widespread blackouts.
Power has largely been restored across the Iberian Peninsula, but not before the outage grounded flights, paralysed train systems and disrupted mobile communication.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Shanks said the UK had not been impacted by the power cuts but the Government continues to prepare for “all eventualities”.
In a statement on energy grid resilience, he said: “I would like to reassure the House that Great Britain has a highly resilient energy network, and the incident in Iberia has not impacted Great Britain.
“The Secretary of State has been in regular contact with the National Energy System Operator, the Neso, over the past two days, and they have provided reassurance that there is no increase in risk to our energy supplies or system stability from this incident.”
Mr Shanks added: “An event similar in impact to this incident in Great Britain would be the equivalent of a national power outage, which is the total loss of power across the whole of GB. This risk is listed on the national risk register as a high-impact, but low-likelihood event.”
He said the Government is prepared “for all eventualities no matter how unlikely”, adding: “This includes having robust emergency plans, summarised in the national emergency plan for downstream gas and electricity, and regularly exercising emergency plans with the energy industry and Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets).”
Shadow energy minister Andrew Bowie said: “We cannot get away from the fact that this Government’s plans to rush ahead to build a grid that is entirely dependent on the wind and the sun, in just five years’ time, makes our electricity grid significantly less reliable.”
He added: “Data from Neso (National Energy System Operator) shows that the inertia in our grid has been steadily decreasing over time, as gas and coal have come off the system to be replaced by wind and solar. This comes with a hefty price tag.
“And this is the problem with so much of the party opposite’s approach to energy security. Because of their imposed targets, they are saddling the British people with mountains of extra costs as they rush ahead towards a power system that depends on the weather rather than firm, reliable base load.”
In his response, Mr Shanks said the Government’s “first priority” is to “ensure energy security”, adding: “We have a resilient grid in this country. It’s important to continue to have that, that means building new grid infrastructure which (Mr Bowie) quite often opposes, along with a number of his colleagues.”
Mr Shanks also said the Government “will implement any lessons” from investigations by the Spanish and Portuguese authorities on the cause of the power outages.
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