Thread by @Telegraph

🔴NEW: Britain faces a greater risk of blackouts this winter the National Grid has warned.

Thread ~ ⬇️

telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…

⚡️The National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) believes supply will meet demand - but has cut its forecast of buffer supply.

Officials are also warning of high costs getting power generators to fire up at short notice to help balance the system

⚠️Costs are ultimately passed onto household bills - a further pressure when bills are climbing due to soaring wholesale costs of natural gas and electricity

telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer…

A key factor leading to the cut is understood to be a fire at a converter station in Sellindge, Kent.

🇫🇷The blaze knocked out the IFA interconnector bringing in about 2GW of power from France.

Half is expected to be back online this month, the rest not until late March 2022

🔥The country's few remaining coal-fired power stations are also likely to run more frequently than last year, National Grid added, due to the prices they can earn to fill in gaps in supply

❌The ESO warned in July that Britain should prepare for constrained power supplies over winter - with nuclear power plants shutting down and demand bouncing back from the pandemic

Wholesale gas prices have risen more than six-fold on normal, leading to a more than four-fold increase in wholesale electricity prices.

📈The price cap on energy bills has already risen £139 to £1,277 and experts predict it could rise by another almost £400 in April

💡The UK's power system has been transformed in recent years amid efforts to tackle climate change.

Coal generated 1/5 of UK electricity in 2015 but this fell to less than 2% in 2020, with wind power picking up much of the slack
telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…

⚖️Having more renewables on the system can make it harder to manage, however, as they depend on the weather and also do not provide inertia

⁉️Why is this happening and how much will it affect you?

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telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…