Prepare for winter blackouts, warns National Grid

My question here is will this be due to a run down power infrastructure, or are they anticipating renewed terrorist cyber attacks that could cause this to happen?


Millions of homes in Britain could be hit by blackouts this winter if there is a prolonged cold snap, a report warned yesterday.

The prediction was made by the National Grid, which revealed that the "safety cushion" between peak electricity demand and generating capacity had fallen to dangerously low levels. It said that the danger of blackouts would be highest in the four weeks either side of Christmas.

The problem stems, in part, from generating companies mothballing power stations because of the slump in wholesale electricity prices that followed a government shake-up of the market. London and the Midlands were hit by blackouts in August and September but in both cases the power cuts were caused by failures in the transmission system.

The report said that if there were blackouts this winter the cause would be the shortage of power stations.

news.independent.co.uk...