Christopher O’Shea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, has said he is “worried” about low gas reserves this winter.
“I’m worried because today we have less than 1 week’s gas supply in store in the UK,” O’Shea said in a social media post on Friday.
“We need the lights to go on every time the switch is flicked anywhere in the country. And we’re too close to that not being the case for comfort in my view.”
The energy giant warned that UK gas stores fell to “concerningly low” levels this month amid freezing cold temperatures.
Stocks at UK gas storage sites were 26% lower than the same period last year on Thursday, leaving them at half capacity, it said.
The National Electricity System Operator (NESO) issued a system notice on Wednesday, warning of possible blackouts following a 1.7 GW power “shortfall”.
The grid operator’s warning followed fears of low wind output and interconnector grid outages that affected imports from Europe.
O’Shea cited concern over European gas imports, which have been constrained by restrictions on gas from Russia.
“Today it’s very cold and not very windy or sunny,” he said. “Right now the UK is using 45GW of electricity. 2.5GW is coming from solar, 0.6GW is coming from hydro and 3.2GW is coming from wind. Which means we need almost 40GW from elsewhere.
“We’re importing almost 7GW from Europe.”
The loss of gas from pipelines in Russia has meant Europe and the UK are dependent on a combination of domestic supply, storage, imported gas and liquefied natural gas.
The system operator said on Wednesday that wind power delivered 30% of electricity demand in 2024, making it the highest contributor of electricity in a single year.
Renewables generated “more than 50% of our electricity for four consecutive quarters”, to and including the third quarter, according to NESO.
There was a 10% drop in demand for UK gas in 2023. According to forecasts made by the North Sea Transition Authority (NTSA) in March, UK gross gas production will fall from 31.4bn m3 this year to 17.0bn m3 in 2030.
Climate Change Committee boss Emma Pinchbeck has said she is “not very worried” about periods of low wind power, as it is National Grid’s role to balance times of low supply.
“I’m not very worried, because National Grid aren’t very worried and they’re the people whose job it is to keep the lights on,” Pinchbeck said about windless days in a BBC Radio 4 interview that was posted on social media platform Bluesky.
“That’s for a few reasons. Firstly, wind has become much more reliable. Wind turbines are bigger, they’re out at sea where there’s a lot more wind. They tip over at the slightest breath of wind, and that means they can come on in more conditions.
“Secondly, we’ve got technologies available to complement. In the long run, we’ll have decarbonised gas on the system to complement wind, but also things like nuclear, storage, other energy technologies. And lastly, we’ve got smart technologies and better ability to predict things like weather patterns.”
Centrica plans to spend £2bn on an overhaul of the Rough gas storage site, which holds half of the UK’s gas storage capacity.
The company has said it needs a cap-and-floor mechanism to operate when it converts the site to hydrogen storage.
O’Shea said: “We need the regulatory framework which covers other types of energy storage. Nothing more, nothing less. Just equal treatment, and no government money at all.”
Recommended for you
