The risk of power cuts in the UK, for a variety of reasons, remains real. Low plant margins (i.e. limited spare capacity at peak demand levels) in the UK are obvious enough. However, the events of 28 April 2025 ‒ when Spain, Portugal and parts of France were plunged into lengthy power outages ‒ were very disconcerting. A recent Spanish government report has now placed much of the blame on the national system operator, the Redeia-owned Red Electrica. There was some criticism, too, of unnamed private sector generators in causing grid instability.
Redeia’s UK counterparty, National Energy System Operator (NESO), will have been following these developments particularly closely. With more renewable generation on a system that was originally built around coal-fired plant – and therefore generally sited close to coalfields – maintaining grid stability has become immensely complex, and it remains a major challenge for NESO.
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