A dark stage. According to information from guardian, the British authorities are preparing for a complicated winter on the energy side -with an average increase of 50% in the electricity bill- and are anticipating the worst, rehearsing various scenarios. Some of them very hard. In a model called a “reasonable disaster scenario,” they envision week-long power outages.
Very pessimistic forecasts
Priorities in the event of such an event would be access to food, water, and housing for older and younger populations, as well as caregivers.
The forecasts are much more pessimistic than those made by the UK’s national electricity grid. The latter explained that cuts of three hours could occur, in the worst case, in British territory. They would be evenly distributed across the country and would occur every day; the frequency of their occurrence depends on the severity of supply problems.
In the event of a power outage, residents and businesses would be informed 24 hours in advance. Beyond a week of shutdown, an agreement between Ofgem, the energy regulator, and the national grid, establishes that the current must be restored.
Hostile state or flood
The Yarrow program – the name of the program that bundles the models, which is currently being tested by the government – makes various assumptions and scenarios that could lead to major outages: floods damaging strategic infrastructure, lightning striking a facility, or another attack from a enemy state over submarine cables, while Russia accuses the UK of having sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
The plan therefore predates the energy crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine, but has taken on a new importance with rising energy prices and gas and electricity supply difficulties: the UK continues to being very dependent on France and its nuclear fleet, today in difficulties.
Source: BFM TV
