Electricity imports at record high

Electricity imports from continental Europe have hit a record high. Britain increasingly depends on undersea cables to keep the lights on with risks to both continuity of supply and prices.

Between April and June this year 20 per cent of the total electricity supply was imported. About half came from France, which has a fleet of nuclear power stations. Norway was the second largest provider. Imports were boosted by new interconnector cables linking Britain’s domestic grid with other countries.

Risks

Relying on interconnectors to import power carries risks. The claim is that they shore up Britain’s energy and bring national security. The reality is the opposite – putting our energy supply at the behest of other nations whose interests and priorities can quickly change.

‘Britain remains vulnerable to the energy market and supply chain disruptions.’

Dependence on international suppliers carries price risks too. Britain remains vulnerable to global energy market fluctuations as well as the threat of supply chain disruptions.

Wind power was Britain’s largest source of electricity during the quarter to June. That source overtook gas last year, according to a report by Imperial College commissioned by the energy company Drax.

Prices

Renewable electricity generation reached a near record share of 51 per cent of total generation in the first quarter of the year. But when there’s not enough wind blowing, wholesale electricity prices shoot up. And there are relatively few non-intermittent plants (nuclear, gas, oil, coal) to call on compared to a decade ago.

Britain’s traditional sources of continuous power (baseload) are in decline. The last British coal-fired power station, Radcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, closed on 30 September. Britain is the first G7 country to stop using coal for power – the culmination of strategic decisions by successive governments over a long period.

Dark side

Ageing nuclear power stations are nearing the end of their life – four out of the five currently generating will close within four years – and replacements have been delayed. Unsurprisingly Britain’s dependency on energy imports has increased dramatically – tenfold in the decade to 2021. This is the dark flipside of the trumpeted reduction in carbon emissions from power generation here.

Britain has six electricity interconnectors with continental Europe: most of the capacity has been added since 2019. The most recent one – with Denmark – came online in December with several more planned.

Sky-high

A cable link is even planned from Morocco – nearly 4,000 km long and running through the Straits of Gibraltar. Claimed to be able to provide 8 per cent of Britain’s energy needs by 2030 from solar farms in the Sahara, the costs (currently estimated at £22-24 billion) will no doubt be added to the already sky-high price of electricity here. And there’s always the risk that the operators will choose to go elsewhere.

In 2020 the Conservative government proposed to double interconnector capacity by 2030. So far the Labour government, whose energy policy is fixated on “decarbonising the grid by 2030”, looks set to continue on the same course.