Cost of living: 'Significant risk' of UK gas supply emergency, energy regulator warns

Alnat1

If it does happen it will be a pre-warned couple of hours in the evening peak period. Different areas will get it on different evenings.

The world will not end, we will have had time to organise food, we will spend 2 hours chatting to each other by candlelight/watching a film on a charged-up laptop/staring at our mobile phones. Pretty much a normal evening except the box in the corner of the room won't be on.

Candle shelf in Tesco will be empty by Wednesday though 

JohnPo

Sterlingtimes said:

Of course, domestic gas supplies cannot just be switched on and off like electricity. Gas pipes would need to be "purged" of air at each meter point following an outage. Presumably, in the event of a shortage, less gas would be used for electricity generation to avoid domestic outages.

Exactly, in the event of a gas shortage the supply network will be unaffected and gas pressure maintained.  However electricity generation from gas will be restricted leading to controlled power outages to large commercial customers initially.  If things get bad, then domestic customers might be also be affected, so no central heating (gas / oil or whatever) as no power to the electronic controls / pumps - also reducing gas consumption.

poppellerant

At least if we are pre-warned about our electric being turned off, that gives us a chance to charge up laptops, phones, powerbanks, refill water bottles, boil water to put in a flask, etc.

If it was cut off randomly, there wouldn't be any time to get ready.

MattMattMattUK

Pretty much everyone can cope for a few hours without electricity, it might be a mild inconvenience for households, however the wider economic impact of shutting down industry will be far worse. We should be cutting residential supply first an industrial supply only as an absolute last resort. 

[Deleted User]

MattMattMattUK said:

Pretty much everyone can cope for a few hours without electricity, it might be a mild inconvenience for households, however the wider economic impact of shutting down industry will be far worse. We should be cutting residential supply first an industrial supply only as an absolute last resort. 

Businesses often have interruptible contracts, so they are expecting it.

MattMattMattUK

[Deleted User] said:

MattMattMattUK said:

Pretty much everyone can cope for a few hours without electricity, it might be a mild inconvenience for households, however the wider economic impact of shutting down industry will be far worse. We should be cutting residential supply first an industrial supply only as an absolute last resort. 

Businesses often have interruptible contracts, so they are expecting it.

They often do, or on site generation, but that still has a cost and the wider economic impact of that would be quite high if it was on a large scale, where as the economic cost of domestic supplies being out for two hours is negligible and may even be positive if it drives people to pubs, restaurants, cinemas etc. 

Notepad_Phil

littleteapot said:

facade said:

Dolor said:

Scaremongering at its worst!

From the lips of our PM:

Asked last week whether she ruled out energy rationing, Truss said: “I do rule that out. Yes.” The government has repeatedly said consumers and businesses should have confidence they will have the power they need over the winter.

Source: The Guardian.

Now I'm worried.

And so we should be. Once the government officially denies something will happen, we know for certain that it will...

And if Truss had said, "Yes, there is a very remote possibility that we might need energy rationing", do you imagine the media etc would report that in a responsible manner or would they do their normal click bait "The world's coming to an end, the government must do something" way?

The_Green_Hornet

MattMattMattUK said:

Pretty much everyone can cope for a few hours without electricity, it might be a mild inconvenience for households, however the wider economic impact of shutting down industry will be far worse. We should be cutting residential supply first an industrial supply only as an absolute last resort. 

Businesses don't vote in general elections.

maisie_cat

Businesses that consume large amounts of power will have a backup, even if only enough to allow safe shutdown.
Most households can manage, we've been without power at least a dozen times in the last two years, twice for a day and only those two were with notice. 
My cousins in South Africa have had rolling blackouts for years and once you are used to it you manage.
Even if the papers are scaremongering, they may motivate those households who do not normally take action to prepare themselves to do something. I know of somebody who needs breathing equipment at night and they've invested in a portable power station.

Flight3287462

Miser1964 said:

elsien said:

Miser1964 said:

Ofgem is not fit for purpose

Because? 

Because their forecast of £4,266 for average bills by Jan 2023 created a political firestorm, when in reality the wholesale price of gas is dropping. Ofgem has been 'captured' by the industry it's supposed to be regulating. 

Don't suppose you have taken the February 2023 price of around 500p/therm into account and if Europe has really cold winter that will look cheap!