Power Set To Return After UK Blackouts

[BASEL]

By Sky News SkyNews - Wednesday, May 28 03:34 pm

Electricity supplies should return to normal today after the countrywide blackouts, the National Grid has said.
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Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across London, Cheshire, Merseyside and East Anglia were affected between 11am and 1pm on Tuesday.

The blackouts happened when the Sizewell B nuclear power station in Suffolk and the Longanett coal-fired power station in Fife both went off-line within several minutes of each other.

In total, nine generating units across the country became unavailable.

Stuart Larque, spokesman for the National Grid, said: "We think it will be a case of business as usual.

"We have a very robust system in the UK. It rarely fails and that's why everybody is talking about it so much."

The blackouts were caused by the opposite of a power surge as the National Grid deactivated local stations to maintain the required 50hz frequency.

When demand is greater than generation, the system fails.

The Government has come under pressure from the largest independent energy consultancy, McKinnon Clarke, to build new power stations or face further power cuts.

David Hunter, energy analyst at McKinnon Clarke, said: "The Government's inability to make long-term energy security decisions over the last decade is coming home to roost.

"Since the 'dash for gas' in the 1990s, the lack of political will to make tough decisions has left Britain short of power."


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