Liz Truss has ruled out launching an energy-saving public information campaign amid warnings planned three-hour power blackouts could be imposed in some areas.
Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg is believed to have backed a £15m campaign this winter, with The Times reporting the idea was blocked by No 10. It said the campaign was seen as “light touch” and included measures designed to help people save up to £300 a year, which included lowering the temperatures of boilers, turning off radiators in empty rooms and advising people to turn off the heating when they go out. The paper quoted a government source describing the campaign as a “no-brainer” and saying No 10 had made a “stupid decision,” but it added Ms Truss is said to be “ideologically opposed” to such an approach as it could be too interventionist.
The National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) warned households and businesses might face planned three-hour outages to ensure that the grid does not collapse in the “unlikely” event gas supplies fall short of demand.
The concern over planned blackouts is reminiscent of the 1970s response to the miners’ strikes and oil crisis. The Three-Day Week was introduced from 1 January 1974, with commercial users of electricity being limited to three consecutive days of consumption each week, with pubs and restaurants closed on quiet days and TV companies barred from broadcasting after 10.30pm. Essential services such as hospitals, supermarkets and newspaper printing presses, were exempt.
Ms Truss, pressed to guarantee there will be no blackouts, told reporters during a visit to the Czech Republic: “What we’re clear about is that we do have a good supply of energy in the UK, we’re in a much better position than many other countries, but of course there’s always more we can do, and that’s why I’m here working with our partners, making sure we do have a secure energy supply into the future. We do have good energy supplies in the UK, we can get through the winter, but of course I am always looking for ways that we can improve the price for consumers. That’s why we put in place the energy price guarantee as well as making sure we have as much supply as possible.”
These energy savings schemes can backfire on you. We had one in the 1980s when it looked like there was going to be a power shortage. It was very successful and people really cut back on power (eg I got rid of my beer fridge, took shorter showers, converted to off peak).
In the end the shortage never happened for a number of reasons but the reduction in load persisted for many, many years afterwards and revenue with it.
I was wondering though…with the high standing charges that everyone is paying now, if there were blackouts, would companies refund customers the difference?
They do here, the standing charges are a daily charge so if they fail to supply power for the day the charge cannot be applied. Obviously a outage of less than a day doesn’t count but during the bush fires when power was not restored for many days the standing charge was not applied.
Oh for gawd sake how on earth can you compare this with anything like that. The national grid have worked out things that they could do in a worst case scenario, I heard some professor yesterday saying there was a 1% chance of it happening. If it happens then I’m sure people will know what to do without having to spend £15 million on something that in all likelihood won’t happen.
And you’d be the first to start a thread, ‘Government wasted £15 million pounds on Government campaign on something they were assured wouldn’t happen’.
And a warning to peeps especially those who have smart meters, energy companies are encouraging people to do their washing, etc. over night and even giving cash incentives to do so, but the fire service have always advised against this, this is the London fire service, but if you look on your own fire service website they more than likely will be saying the same thing:
If an energy-saving campaign would help to reduce energy consumption, then surely it will be a good thing - no matter what happens about blackouts this Winter, helping everyone to reduce unnecessary energy consumption is a good thing for the future.
I find the Truss “ideology” of reducing state intervention to the levels she talks about worrying - what’s the point of having a central government if its not going to make sure that the basic needs of everyone is met.
The way Truss talks about removing “red tape” and “relaxing laws” in areas where government intervention has been put in place to protect everyone makes me nervous. Leaving too much to “market forces”, as she seems to favour, often means the financially strong call all the shots and the weak and vulnerable get left behind.
However, on the other side of the coin, if a government campaign was just going to reiterate the usual standard energy-saving measures, like adjusting heating controls etc, isn’t there enough energy-saving information and tips readily available in the public domain already?
Can there be a person in the country who hasn’t already seen / heard a newspaper / magazine article or slot in a TV or radio programme about how to save energy. Charities linked to helping the vulnerable, such as Age Concern, are publishing information too. Even energy companies themselves are publishing energy-saving information.
We have heard about very little else on the run-up to the latest energy price increases.
And the current high prices of energy is the biggest incentive for folk to look for these energy-saving tips for themselves.
Maybe a government energy-saving campaign is unnecessary and the money could be better spent on other things.
I used to charge my phone and Kindle overnight but decided it’s not
worth the risk. I have a smoke alarm for the deaf but I just can’t
move as fast as I used to.
