British Gas warns there is only a week of supply left

Britain’s gas reserves have dwindled to a “concerning” low with just a week of supply left as freezing temperatures and low winds grip the country this weekend.

The UK’s storage sites are about half full, said British Gas owner Centrica – 26pc lower than this time last year.

It comes amid a battle over the future of Centrica’s Rough undersea storage facility with Centrica seeking subsidies to fund a £2bn expansion plan.

Chris O’Shea, chief executive of Centrica, said: “The UK’s gas storage levels are concerningly low. We are an outlier from the rest of Europe when it comes to the role of storage in our energy system and we are now seeing the implications of that.”

Mr O’Shea said the UK had enough gas in storage for one week, compared with 89 days for Germany, 103 days for France and 123 days for the Netherlands.

However, a No 10 spokesman insisted the UK had enough natural gas supplies to make it through the winter. Separately, a Whitehall source accused Centrica of “lobbying” in order to obtain government support.

Concerns over the UK’s gas reserves will raise scrutiny over the reliability of renewable power sources which are central to the Energy Secretary’s net zero strategy.

Britain’s net zero dependence on wind farms has made shortages more likely when speeds fall, particularly in conditions known as a “dunkelflaute”, where the calm is accompanied by cold weather, which forces up energy use as people stay warm.

Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, said: “Ed Miliband says every solar panel and wind turbine adds to our energy security. That is a lie.

“As I set out last year we need more reliable 24/7 power – that means more gas and nuclear power plants. Ed Miliband’s obsession with wind and solar will leave us at the mercy of foreign imports, sending bills soaring and leaving us at risk of blackouts. Labour have to be brave enough to learn from the last few weeks and change course to protect British energy security.”

The Met Office says the country faces low winds until the end of the weekend with predicted lows of -15C to -20C in parts of Scotland and the North of England on Friday night.

A zone of high pressure predicted to sit over Great Britain until Sunday afternoon also means very light winds.

Gas is key to Britain’s energy supplies providing around 40pc of the nation’s electricity. Around 28m UK homes are reliant on gas boilers for heating and hot water.

Centrica’s warning follows a squeeze on gas flows across Europe caused by the shutdown of the last Russian gas pipeline into Europe on Jan 1.

By Tuesday this week, European storage was at 69pc capacity, down from 84pc at the same time the previous year.

But the UK’s total gas storage capacity is around 10pc or less that of France, Germany, or the Netherlands – making Britain much less resilient.

Oil prices also surged on Friday to hit their highest level since October. Brent crude rose to $80.76 per barrel as cold weather gripped households and concerns grew over potential US sanctions disrupting Russian oil supplies.

As energy demand spikes due to the freezing weather, the UK has seen a particular strain on its gas storage, which is focused on Centrica’s Rough storage facility in subsea rocks off the east coast.

Centrica, which has been pushing for government support to expand Rough, said the facility had played a crucial role so far this winter by supplying almost 420m cubic meters (mcm) of gas since early November, enough to heat 3m homes every day.

The Rough gas storage facility was first opened in 1985, and operated until 2017 when it was shut down after the then-government ruled it was too expensive.

The facility was reopened partially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered an energy crisis but with a fifth of its former capacity.

Centrica has since been calling on the government to support an expansion to its former size.

Under the scheme it would use its own money towards the £2bn costs but wants the Government to offer a so-called cap-and-floor support mechanism to underpin the costs of operation and maintenance. As the country moves away from gas, the site would eventually be used to store hydrogen instead.

Centrica said that the UK is living hand to mouth, relying on imports whose availability and cost are uncertain. Centrica, which has 7.5m residential energy customers, says the UK needs more storage as a “safety net”.

Mr O’Shea said Rough would have saved consumers £5.2bn if it had been operating fully over the past two years and would save households £100 on gas and energy bills each winter if expanded.

He added: “As we work towards Clean Power 2030, long-duration energy storage will be needed more than ever in order to help balance a system that is increasingly reliant on renewables.

“Energy storage is what keeps the lights on and homes warm when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, so investing in our storage capacity makes perfect economic sense. We need to think of storage as a very valuable insurance policy. Like any insurance policy, it may not always be needed, but having more capacity helps protect against worst-case scenarios.”

Earlier this week the conditions took the country to “within a whisker of blackouts”, according to analysts, with gas power plants paid the equivalent of more than £2m an hour to keep the lights on.

A No 10 spokesman said: “We are confident we will have a sufficient gas supply and electricity capacity to meet demand this winter, due to our diverse and resilient energy system.

“We speak regularly with the national energy system operator to monitor our energy security and ensure they have all tools at their disposal if needed to secure our supply.

“Our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 will replace our dependency on unstable fossil fuel markets with clean, homegrown power controlled in Britain, which is the best way to protect bill payers and boost our energy independence.”

A spokesman for National Gas, which runs Britain’s gas network, said: “The overall picture across Great Britain’s eight main gas storage sites remains healthy – with average levels at just over 60pc across the board.

“Britain obtains its gas from a diverse range of sources beyond that already in storage, meaning we are well placed to respond to demand this winter.”

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