Gas panic!
- Stuart Fegan
- Mar 21, 2018
- 2 min read
On 1st March whilst the ‘Beast from the East’ was sweeping across the UK, plunging temperatures way below freezing, National Grid issued its first Gas Deficit Warning to the nation since 2010.
A Gas Deficit Warning is issued by the National Grid to indicate that UK gas reserves are running low and that outages in gas supply may be probable against the backdrop of increased demand. This is particularly serious as 80% of the UK’s 26 million homes are heated by gas and nearly half our Electricity supply is generated from gas.
Central to this crisis is the decision by Centrica (who own British Gas) to close the Rough storage facility off the east coast of Yorkshire in June last year.
Centrica received permission from the Government to close this facility even though it operated under licence since 1964, containing 70% of the UK gas storage without any contingency plan. The closure of Rough has also left the UK more dependent on imported gas from regimes such as Qatar and Russia, who have less than desirable humans rights records let alone trade union rights for their workers.
This situation has created the environment that when demand increases in cold weather, then the price of wholesale gas spikes (600% on 1st March). This produces a quick profit for wholesale gas suppliers while ordinary people foot the cost in increased bills.
GMB has written to the Minister for Energy and Clean Growth, Claire Perry MP, along with high energy trade associations in ceramics, glass, and paper (to name but a few) calling for an urgent inquiry into the security and price of gas to make sure supply to the UK population is secure, safe, and in our own hands - and that thousands of jobs in high energy industries are protected.
At the time of writing we are yet to receive a response from the Minister, but will keep our energy reps and members advised of next steps in our campaign.
Image via jamin2 / Flickr
