Recommendation 25

The Department described energy security and the security of supply as its highest priority. We asked the Department what it thought about concerns, set out in a document published by Net Zero Watch called “Blackout Risk in the GB Grid”, that events such as certain weather conditions, or interruption to a few power stations, led to a situation in early January where the level of supply in the grid to meet energy demand fell to what it described as “worryingly low levels”; with a risk of “cutting off certain areas of electricity or even a blackout”.72 Indeed, on 8 January 2025, the National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) issued to energy providers an energy margin notice, one of a range of tools it uses to make sure there is a healthy margin between the demand for energy and the available supply.73 It cost NESO £21 million to achieve this (a similar intervention on 14 January 2022 cost £25 million).74 The Department assured us this was a “normal part” of the 66 Q 11; C&AG’s Report, para 4.14 67 Q 66 68 Q 54 69 C&AG’s Report, para 4.12 70 Q 9 71 Qq 9, 71 72 Q 5 73 Qq 5, 6, 8 74 National Energy Systems Operator, What happened with margins on 8 January?, 14 January 2025 15 system’s operation. It explained that such notices are “routine signals to the market about supply needing to be available”.75 It also told us that it “did not agree with the analysis” in the document from which we drew our concerns.76 NESO acknowledged, however, that there had been some speculation about the seriousness of the situation. In response, it published an article setting out the actions it took and shared the publicly available data that informed its actions.77