Mothballed plants will keep the lights on

Re-commissioned mothballed power plants will help keep the lights on, according to the energy minister.

Michael Fallon told the BBC’s Sunday Politics there would not be blackouts or energy rationing UK because mothballed plants will help meet the capacity demand, with margins expected to tighten by the middle of the decade.

He said: “They’re [National Grid] looking – and they should be looking – at some recently mothballed plant to make sure the operators of that plant are ready, if the plant is needed, to bring it onto the system.”

System operator, National Grid, has proposed that energy intensive industries reduce their power demand between 4pm and 8pm during the winter at times of peak demand, to ensure there are not blackouts.

However, Fallon has said this course of action will not be necessary.

“We’re not going to have industrial blackouts, factories shut at lunchtime and people sent home or anything like that,” he said.

He added: “They’ve [National Grid] always had an operating reserve, there are companies that have their own generators who can contract to Ofgem to turn down their power or switch over to their private generators for a certain period if there’s a completely unexpected spike in demand.”

“Keeping the lights on if the first priority,” Fallon said. “We’ve got time to deal with this situation – and let me reassure you, we are dealing with it.”