Energy Grid Resilience

Statement

The following Statement was made in the House of Commons on Wednesday 30 April.

“With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a Statement on the resilience of the UK’s energy grid in the context of the widespread power outages experienced across the Iberian peninsula over the past two days. My thoughts are with all those affected by the widespread disruption across that peninsula on Monday. I am glad to hear that power has now been fully restored across the region.

I want to reassure the House that Great Britain has a highly resilient energy network, and that the incident in Iberia has not impacted Great Britain. The Secretary of State has been in regular contact with the National Energy System Operator over the past two days, and it has provided reassurance that there is no increase in risk to our energy supplies or system stability from this incident.

My department was informed on Monday 28 April by NESO that a power outage had occurred across the Iberian peninsula, affecting mainland Spain, Portugal, Andorra and areas of France. While all power was restored to the impacted areas yesterday, Tuesday 29 April, the disruption had cascading impacts on other sectors across the vast majority of Spain and Portugal. The cause of the outage is yet to be confirmed; it is likely to take some time for the Spanish network operator to carry out a thorough investigation to determine the exact cause of the failure. Various independent reviews have been commissioned by Spain, Portugal and the European Commission to understand the cause.

Although GB is not directly connected to Spain and Portugal’s grid, NESO is in close contact with European counterparts and is offering support where needed. The Government are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with the Spanish and Portuguese authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of any British nationals in the affected regions.

I turn to our grid’s resilience, and our preparedness in the context of recent events on the Iberian peninsula. An event similar in impact in Great Britain would be equivalent to a national power outage—a total loss of power across the whole of GB—which is listed on the national risk register as a high-impact but low-likelihood event. In its 75-year history, Great Britain’s national electricity transmission system has never experienced a complete shutdown, or anything on the scale of what has happened in Spain over the past few days.

Our electricity system is highly resilient. The National Energy System Operator continuously monitors the condition of the electricity system to ensure there are sufficient inertia and reserves in the system to manage large losses and prevent large-scale power outages. NESO has also introduced innovative new approaches to managing system stability, as well as advanced safety systems to help to prevent such events from happening in GB. The system is built, designed and operated to cope with the loss of key circuits or systems without causing customer impacts. There are multiple redundant alternative routes through which power can flow should a fault occur, minimising the risk of a single fault cascading across the entire system to cause a total or partial electricity system shutdown.

However, as a responsible Government, we prepare for all eventualities, no matter how unlikely. I would like to reassure the House that the Government work closely with industry to continually improve and maintain the resilience of energy infrastructure, networks and assets to reduce vulnerabilities. This work includes having robust emergency plans, summarised in the national emergency plan for downstream gas and electricity, and regularly exercising emergency plans with the energy industry and Ofgem. That includes an exercise carried out by the previous Government; we have been taking forward the recommendations from that exercise. This work is ongoing across government to ensure we are as resilient as possible as a nation in all eventualities.

We have also empowered the independent National Energy System Operator to carry out resilience functions across the electricity and gas systems, and will continue to work with industry and regulators to improve and maintain the resilience of old, new and future energy infrastructure. Switching fossil-fuelled generation for home-grown clean energy from renewables, nuclear and other clean technologies is the route to long-term energy security. I will speak more broadly about the UK’s energy resilience in a debate in Westminster Hall on Tuesday.

To conclude, Great Britain has a resilient energy network, and we will ensure that that continues to be the case. I commend this Statement to the House”.

15:34:00

My Lords, I begin by expressing my sympathy for all those impacted by the recent blackouts in Spain, Portugal and beyond. This blackout should serve as a stark reminder of the consequences when the power grid fails. Prolonged blackouts are devastating. The collapse of the grid in Iberia highlights the vulnerability of our complex, interconnected systems that underpin modern life, as well as the profound human impact that such failures can have. We must ensure that this does not happen in Great Britain, as the economic and social consequences would be catastrophic. The Government’s plan to rapidly build a grid that is dependent on naturally unreliable and intermittent renewables in just five years will severely compromise the reliability of our electricity supply. The stability of a grid depends on what physicians know well as inertia—the ability to resist destabilising fluctuations in frequency. This has been a key factor in the security and resilience of our grid over the years. Inertia is provided by turbines in nuclear, hydro and gas power stations, but it is not provided by solar and wind farms. Without sufficient inertia to buffer against sudden frequency shifts, the grid risks destabilisation, potentially triggering a domino effect of system failures that culminates in widespread blackouts. The most recent annual report from Spain’s equivalent of NESO highlights the risk of relying too heavily on renewables. It concluded that the closure of conventional power plants such as coal, gas and nuclear has diminished the grid’s balancing abilities and inertia. What is deeply concerning is that the same trend is occurring here in the UK. Data from NESO has shown a steady decrease in grid inertia as gas and coal plants are replaced by wind and solar. The transition carries a significant cost, which exemplifies the flaws in much of this Government’s accelerated energy security strategy. The imposed targets are burdening the British public with escalating costs as the Government push forward with a power system dependent on weather conditions rather than reliable, consistent baseload energy. Billions of pounds are being spent subsidising wind farms, expanding the grid and providing backup through reliable gas plants, yet the Government remain determined to meet the accelerated 2030 clean energy target without being transparent with the public about how this will be achieved. The lessons from the Iberian peninsula’s experience are clear. We must maintain inertia in our grid to ensure its stability and resilience. Gas and nuclear power are essential for providing reliable baseload generation and inertia. I look to the Minister to provide clarity and assurance. Can he confirm NESO’s and the national grid’s preparedness for a blackout? Will he recognise the role that inertia plays in our power system and the impacts of declining inertia on grid stability? Finally, will he recognise that it is not a reliance on, to quote him, “international gas markets” that puts the UK at risk of blackouts? That lies squarely at the foot of renewables, which cannot provide reliable baseload electricity.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for the Statement on the power outages across the Iberian peninsula. Our thoughts are of course with the 55 million people across Spain, Portugal, Andorra and parts of France who were affected. The Statement rightly highlights the highly resilient nature of Great Britain’s energy. I welcome that we will continue to improve our resilience and ensure that our energy systems are robust and that we have the proper exercises in place. We note that a similar event in Great Britain—a total loss of power—is listed on the national risk register as high impact but very low likelihood. It is reassuring to hear that the Minister has been in regular contact with the National Energy System Operator and is working closely with industry to maintain the resilience of our energy infrastructure. I also welcome the Government’s taking forward recommendations from previous exercises such as Mighty Oak. As the Minister has noted, the exact reasons behind the power failure remain uncertain. We note that independent examinations are going on and that the Spanish and Portuguese Governments and the European Commission are all examining the causes. The truth is that there are probably several interlinked events that caused this power outage. Sadly, despite the fact that the causes are at the moment unknown, a “firestorm of disinformation” has already erupted, with some attempting immediately to blame the use of renewable energy. We echo the Spanish Prime Minister’s call for caution against misinformation and disinformation. Energy experts have been quite quick to dismiss renewables as the primary cause. On disinformation, Carbon Brief notes that UK newspapers have already launched more incorrect editorials attacking our net-zero policies in the first four months of 2025 than they did during the whole of 2024. So I take this opportunity to ask the Minister, what actions are the Government taking to improve government communications and actively counter disinformation in this area? What this incident does highlight, however, is the critical importance of investing in and upgrading our national grid. As we transition to clean energy, a closely synchronized dance has to happen between building grid capacity and developing clean power. The grid must be designed and invested in adequately, at the right time and with the right volumes, as renewable energy is added and demand for electricity grows. Significant investments are needed: some £77 billion over the next five years to increase electricity levels. The UK is lagging behind, with grid infrastructure spending being only 25p for every pound spent on renewables. What measures are the Government taking to make sure that investment in our grid is keeping pace and meeting the investment we require? I also want to ask the Minister about transformers. Following the fire at Heathrow, it has come to my attention that only one factory in the UK produces these bespoke bits of kit, and there are 12 to 24-month waiting times. These are crucial for upgrading our grid and making sure it continues to work, so can the Minister have a look at the transformer capacity issue? We must learn any lessons, but a baseless rush to blame renewables as part of a culture war helps no one at all. Enabling the resilience and security of our energy grid is paramount. We must focus on the facts, invest strategically in our infrastructure and counter harmful disinformation to deliver a secure, affordable and clean energy future.

My Lords, I thank both noble Lords for their comments, and I join them in expressing my sympathies for those affected. I am glad to hear that power has been fully restored across the region. As noble Lords have suggested, the Spanish Government are undertaking a review. We do not yet know the outcome, and I suggest that it is best to await the review before we can look properly at any potential lesson or impact on our own system. Clearly, it is entirely understandable that noble Lords should raise the question of the resilience of our own grid. The Secretary of State has been in regular contact over the past week with the National Energy System Operator, which has provided reassurance that there is no increase in risk to our energy supplies from that incident. The intervention of the noble Lord, Lord Offord, did not come as a surprise to me. We still believe that the best way to secure energy independence is through clean power. The Office for Budget Responsibility has assessed that responding to future gas price shocks could be twice as expensive as the direct public investment needed to reach net zero. I hope I can provide some reassurance on the issue of inertia. NESO continuously monitors the condition of the electricity system to ensure that there are sufficient inertia reserves to manage large losses. System inertia is the kinetic energy stored in the spinning parts of the generator connected to the electricity system. If there is a sudden change in system frequency, these parts will carry on spinning and slow down that change. System inertia behaves a bit like shock absorbers in a car’s suspension, which dampen the effect of a sudden bump in the road and keep the car stable and moving forward. In the context of renewable energies, NESO has introduced new technologies such as flywheels to increase inertia and establish new commercial mechanisms to procure these on the GP system as more non-synchronous generation is built and makes up a large proportion of the energy mix. It has also introduced innovative new approaches to manage system stability and the system is designed, built and operated in a way that can cope with the loss of key circuits or systems, minimising the risk of significant customer impact. As the noble Earl, Lord Russell, suggested, a similar event impacting Great Britain would be a national power outage, with a total loss of power across the whole of Great Britain. This is listed on the national risk register as a high-impact but low-likelihood event, as the noble Earl said. The Great British national electricity transmission system has never experienced a complete shutdown, or anything on the scale seen in Spain over the past few days. None the less, I accept that, as a responsible Government, we must prepare for all eventualities. On the issue of transformers, I take the noble Earl’s point. Clearly, they are an essential part of the supply chain for our energy sector. We are due to receive an interim report from the review by NESO of what happened at Heathrow—indeed, I think it is due today. We will obviously study that carefully and, if it has implications in relation to transformers, we will consider them very carefully. The noble Earl also mentioned Exercise Mighty Oak. This was clearly a valuable exercise undertaken by the last Government and we are committed to continuing the work to implement the actions that came from it. As far as the grid is concerned, I very much take the noble Earl’s point. We know that it needs extending. In the first instance, we are reforming the prioritisation of connections to bring forward projects that are absolutely thought to be able to come forward immediately, rather than applications that will not go anywhere. We also recognise that connection reforms are a critical enabler for our clean power 2030 ambition, and we expect that this will bring forward about £200 billion of investment in network and project build by 2030.

15:47:00

My Lords, does the Minister accept that an essential tool in balancing UK electricity network capacity is the availability of a significant additional number of pumped storage hydro schemes? Will he urge GB Energy to accelerate the pumped storage projects currently under consideration and reconfigure grid capacity to facilitate this?

My Lords, the noble Lord makes an important point. I certainly accept that pumped storage energy has a role to play. I shall make sure that Great British Energy is apprised of the views he has taken. He knows that we wish them to operate independently within the strategic framework, which we have debated extensively, but it is a very apposite point, which I will pass on to the chair.

My Lords, as was recognised in the other place, reports suggest that Programme Yarrow and Exercise Mighty Oak yielded useful insights and made a valuable contribution to our preparedness in the event of a disruption to the UK’s power supply. However, as proven by the previous Government’s failure to act on the findings of Operation Alice, resulting in a lack of planning for track and trace, border security and lockdowns consequent on the arrival of a pandemic, such diagnostic exercises are only as useful as subsequent actions taken to recommend identified shortfalls in resilience. With this precedent in mind, is my noble friend able to reassure your Lordships’ House that the findings of Programme Yarrow and Exercise Mighty Oak are under constant review and, importantly, that we continue to account for advances in capabilities among those strategic adversaries who might seek to target our critical energy infrastructure?

My Lords, Mighty Oak was a successful programme to test plans for full electricity restoration in the event of a national power outage. It was very successful and generated a number of learning points, and we now have a strong governance framework for oversight of the implementation of those recommendations. That work will also feed into the resilience review that my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster announced in July 2024. I assure my noble friend that there is absolutely no complacency whatever, and nor is there any in relation to the energy security system and cybersecurity threats he referred to. It is certainly a key priority for the Government. We work closely with the National Protective Security Authority and the National Cyber Security Centre and we are certainly not complacent on this.

My Lords, I can reassure the noble Earl, Lord Russell, that I do not wish to denigrate the contribution of renewables but, with the increasing electrification of heating and transport, can the Minister explain how the grid can remain resilient without more reliable baseload power, such as that provided by nuclear?

My Lords, I agree with the noble Baroness that the baseload that nuclear provides is very important indeed. She knows that we are rapidly approaching the final investment decision on Sizewell C, and the conclusion of the current work of Great British Nuclear in relation to small modular reactors. We are very keen to see the contribution of nuclear recognised. I agree with her that it provides an essential baseload to the system.

My Lords, one of the contributors to clean power, which the Government are quite rightly promoting, is solar panels on the roofs of new houses. I commend what the Government are trying to do, but has my noble friend not seen all the opposition from the housebuilders, who say it is too expensive, it will not work, it will make them fat and everything else? Will he keep going with this programme? It is local and very good and will give extra alternatives to all the other types of power that have been discussed this afternoon.

My noble friend will know that my colleagues in the MHCLG are discussing these matters at the moment. I, of course, very much understand the contribution that solar on rooftops can make. We are taking this forward and I am sure we will make announcements as soon as possible.

Is the Minister able to tell us what proportion of our annual electricity comes from undersea cables, whether from abroad—France, Norway or eventually, possibly, Morocco—or from our own offshore wind farms? Because we know what President Putin has his eye on.

My Lords, I do not have the exact figures, but I will certainly find them and send them to the noble Lord. Clearly, protecting the offshore infrastructure is a very important issue for the Government. We are working with subsea and offshore operators, including the Joint Maritime Security Centre, to enhance our domestic maritime awareness. I very much take the point and will find the information and send it to him.

My Lords, the Government have a key meeting coming up with the European Union and, as part of the trade and co-operation agreement, there is, next year, a revision of the energy relationship. With regard to the resilience of our national electricity and energy systems, what do the Government expect to get out of the meeting next month, particularly on interconnectors and a more efficient form of trading between us and our European partners?

My Lords, the noble Lord can hardly expect me to go into the details of what we expect out of such discussions. He will know that we are embarked on resetting the relationship between ourselves and the EU. There is to be a summit between the UK and the EU on 19 May and, of course, we have been in discussions with the EU about a number of energy issues. Clearly, what we want is a co-operative relationship that recognises that there is an interrelationship between ourselves and the mainland of Europe. I cannot go into any more detail than that.

My Lords, I refer to my interest in the register as chair of the National Preparedness Commission. My noble friend the Minister is quite right to highlight the fact that our grid is recognised as one of the more resilient around the world. However, noble Lords have already indicated the number of threats and the changing way in which the grid is operating, with more suppliers and so on coming on stream. Can my noble friend reassure the House that enough consideration has been given not so much to all the things that we are doing to prevent an outage, but all the things that we should be doing to make sure that the public and industry are prepared for those, I hope, rare or even non-existent occasions when the power does go off and for more than just a very short period?

My Lords, I very much take my noble friend’s point; I will certainly take it on board and discuss it with colleagues. In relation to energy security, I have already said that we must maintain a resilient and secure electricity system. It is a key priority for us. We work closely with the National Protective Security Authority. I pay tribute to my noble friend for the contribution that he has made to these discussions. We are providing extensive advice and support to industry on what measures it should take to protect itself, but I take the point about communication with the public and it is something that I will reflect upon.

I want to reinforce the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Wigley. He is right, and the Minister is right, that in the past we did indeed have resilience. In this sort of case, resilience means bringing in a large amount of extra supply at very short notice, such as could be performed at Dinorwig, the pump storage station, which I was told could bring in several gigawatts at two minutes’ notice and, furthermore, that even if it was never used, the entire system would allow other plants to run at a higher margin, with a higher inertia factor, and, therefore, provide even more resilience and effectiveness for the whole system. In this age, as we move into reliance on renewables on a massive scale, are we providing extra support of that kind—rapid resource mobilisation—which will give us the modern and reliable system that we are going to need to compete in the modern world?

Yes, my Lords, we are. It is a very relevant point. Clearly, we are looking for a balanced energy mix for the future. We see nuclear as being an essential baseload. We will have renewables, but we are looking at hydro storage, as the noble Lord reflected in his own question. The whole point is that we will have a balanced system, but one that is heavily decarbonised. That is exactly the aim of what we seek to do.

My Lords, the Statement says that the GB system is “highly resilient” but, in reality, has that not eroded over recent years, as was demonstrated recently at Heathrow, when we have known for some years about capacity problems in west London? The Minister will also be aware of the bottlenecks on the high-voltage national grid, not helped by the current long lead times—around four years—for high-voltage cable and transformers. Even without the rising threat of sabotage, has the network provider not been far too complacent about the threats to the resilience of our electricity network? Finally, he mentioned in a reply about small modular reactors that the industry has been waiting for too long for a decision while our competitors are moving rapidly ahead. Is it not now time for action to get on with building this industry of the future?

My Lords, in relation to SMRs, I agree with my noble friend that we need to get on with it. I hope and expect that we will have some decisions very soon. I hope that that will set the foundation for future investment in the SMR programme. As far as west London is concerned, my noble friend is absolutely right to point out the challenges there, and the fact that we basically inherited a system where there had not been sufficient investment in the grid and local distribution network. In relation to Heathrow, let us await the interim and final reports of the review that we have established to see what lessons can be learned. As I said earlier to the noble Earl, Lord Russell, the fact is that we expect there to be a major investment in our whole grid system between now and 2030. It will be essential to meet our clean power targets. I think that will give industry the confidence to invest in the areas where we wish it to do so.

My Lords, further to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, about solar panels on the roofs of new houses, will the Minister also look at prioritising solar panels on the roofs of shops, supermarkets and warehouses? Quite often one goes on to an industrial estate and sees a lot of flat roofs but no solar panels and surely that is a much better option than locating solar arrays on top- class agricultural land?

My Lords, I totally agree with the noble Lord’s substantive point, and these matters are being discussed in government at the moment. On the use of farmland, he knows that if we were to achieve the whole of our solar ambition, we would not use more than 1% of agricultural land. We will continue to see solar projects on agricultural land, but I want to see much greater development on industrial premises and in domestic houses.

My Lords, I repeat my declaration of interests. Spending the morning with my newly born grandson has left me in the mood to emphasise the positive, so I can say that I did actually agree with one thing that the noble Lord, Lord Offord, said, and that was that we need to be transparent with the public. There will be difficult decisions to be made and balances to be struck when we build the new infrastructure necessary for the grid. What progress is being made in the public engagement strategy the Government have undertaken about achieving net zero? As we heard earlier today, there are many misapprehensions and mistruths being peddled about the situation in regard to renewables.

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness on being a grandmother—

Again.

—again. I think that is absolutely right. So much misinformation about energy policy appears in social media and in the media generally. We are doing our best; sometimes Governments are not listened to as much as we would wish. There is no question that, for instance, some of the criticism in relation to energy prices is put at the door of net zero when actually it is because of the uncertainty and volatility of international gas markets. There is a lot that we need to do collectively to get over the reality of why climate change presents such a threat, why, unless we can tackle these issues, we will probably continue to have high energy prices, and why we need to adapt and mitigate as fast as we can. I do not have any easy answers, but it is a matter we are giving great consideration to at the moment.

My Lords, resilience is something which is always in the process of being made. It requires embracing emerging technologies. Thorium-based nuclear energy is much safer and cheaper than uranium- or plutonium-based nuclear energy. China and India are leading the race, and I have never seen “thorium” in any UK policy document to do with long-term energy supply. Can the Minister say what investment the UK Government have made or intend to make in thorium-based technology?

No, my Lords, I am not aware of any investment, but I will double-check. I am very happy to discuss this with my noble friend. We should also mention nuclear fusion as having great potential. The previous Government invested, and this Government are investing, considerable amounts of money in it. The UK has a huge potential lead in this exciting area and there are real signs we may see some positive outcomes in the next few years. I am certainly prepared to engage with my noble friend on this.

I return to a question that was at least implicit in the question from the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Ladyton, on the national grid and possible cyberattacks. We are all aware that there has been a massive cyberattack on Marks & Spencer and one on Co-op Group. No organisation, however large, is immune from the possibility of attack and obviously the national grid is particularly vulnerable. Is there anything the Minister can do to reassure the public and give them confidence that every possible step has been taken to avoid this?

My Lords, as I think I have already said, the security of our energy system is clearly critical. I take the point the noble and right reverend Lord raised about cybersecurity. Noble Lords will have seen the devastating impact that this has had on retailers in the last few weeks. We work with the National Cyber Security Centre. We are very exercised about this. I can assure the noble and right reverend Lord that we are not at all complacent.

My noble friend the Minister has already referred to the fact that the system operator is introducing innovative new approaches. Might that involve the application of AI to managing the grid? Looking further ahead, and in the light of the report from your Lordships’ Science and Technology Committee on long-duration energy storage, could the Minister indicate whether or when the Government might take the type of strategic interest in long-duration energy storage that we will need?

My noble friend is right about AI; that was one of the main points raised in the Tony Blair Institute report, which was raised earlier. We are giving long-duration energy storage a great deal of attention.

My Lords, according to National Grid: Live, we are currently relying on interconnectors from Europe for 25% of our energy. Apart from the cost of importing that energy, how much assurance do we have that that electricity comes, and will come, from decarbonised generating capacity?

My Lords, interconnectors are very important for our energy security. As we move towards a low-carbon world, we will wish for that supply to be as low-carbon as possible. This will reflect on progress made in other countries, but it is also in relation to the alignment of carbon trading systems. I hope we will be able to make progress on that in the next few months.