Britain | Rough weather

The threat of energy blackouts in Britain forces a rethink on gas storage

As Europe builds up stocks for the winter, Britain has only meagre capacity

The Rough facility 20 miles of the Humberside coast in the North Sea, bought by Centrica in November 2002 It stores gas under the North Sea on behalf of a number of companies, including other Centrica businesses, to meet seasonal peak demands. The Storage facility is operated by two manned platforms, 47/8 Alpha and 47/3 Bravo, and is connected by a 36 inch pipeline to the gas processing plant at Easington. The 47/3 Bravo platform

Oct 7th 2022

To summer heatwaves, rolling strikes, high inflation and political upheaval, add another echo of the 1970s: the threat of energy blackouts. Projections for Britain’s gas-and-electricity supply this winter were released by National Grid, an energy-transmission firm, on October 6th. They underscore the challenges ahead as continental Europe learns to operate without Russian gas, raising the risk of shortfalls in the imports that Britain relies on to heat homes and produce electricity. Although the company’s base case is that it can get through the winter without interruptions to electricity supply, National Grid also makes it clear that rolling blackouts for firms and households are possible.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The threat of energy blackouts in Britain forces a rethink on gas storage”