The icy weather over the last few days has seen demand for gas-fired power station balloon, with energy firm Centrica saying Britain could run out of gas reserves in days.
Britain's gas supply has reached 'concerningly low' levels and could run out in a matter of days after an Arctic blast sent temperatures plunging.
But as of Thursday, storage sites across the UK were 26 per cent down on last year's supply, leaving them around 'half full', Centrica said. Labour has pledged to debarbonise the UK's power grid by 2030, although PM Sir Keir Starmer recently diluted the promise to at least 95 per cent 'clean' power by the end of the decade.
The UK is heavily reliant on gas to keep the homes of millions of Brits warm during the winter. It also uses a significant amount to power the electricity grid 'Our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 will replace our dependency on unstable fossil fuel markets with clean homegrown power controlled in Britain, which is the best way to protect billpayers and boost our energy independence.'
Despite being full ahead of winter, current gas inventory at Rough, the country's largest gas storage site, which is operated by Centrica, is 20 per cent lower than at the same time last year. 'Energy storage is what keeps the lights on and homes warm when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, so investing in our storage capacity makes perfect economic sense.Labour wants to debarbonise the power grid by 2030, although Sir Keir Starmer recently diluted the pledge to at least 95 per cent 'clean' power
Kathryn Porter, an independent energy consultant, said: 'On January 8, the GB power market came within a whisker of blackouts. Neso used almost every last megawatt available.But yesterday Neso pushed back at the claims, insisting that 'at no point' were power supplies close to failing. 'At no point were electricity supplies less than anticipated demand and our engineers were able to rebalance the system without the need to consider emergency measures.'
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