Thursday, April 22, 2010

"Britain 'facing electricity blackouts'"

We linked to an excellent piece from The Economist last August in "Britain: The looming electricity crunch-"Dark days ahead"'.

From the Telegraph:
Britain faces widespread electricity blackouts within six years, government experts have warned.

Ofgem, the national regulator of gas and electricity, have suggested in a report that power cuts could start in 2016 – three years earlier than previously thought.

The Conservatives used the report yesterday to criticise ministers for failing to tackle energy supply.

Ofgem’s study warned that demand for electricity and gas could outstrip supply in the future, causing a national energy crisis.

Ofgem said that a worst case scenario would be failing levels of supply at peak times, including the evening and during winter months, by as early as 2016.

Every home could be left without power for up to an average of 40 minutes during the year, the report suggested.

That could increase to two hours in 2017, the report warned.

Labour had admitted last year that energy could reach dangerously low levels by the end of the decade.