Britain’s gas storage drops to ‘concerningly low’ levels after recent cold weather
The operator of the UK’s largest gas storage site has said that gas storage levels are ‘concerningly low’, with less than a week of demand in store.
Temperatures have dropped over the last week, meaning high demand for gas-fired power stations. This is the main reason for the low levels, said Centrica, the owners of British Gas.
The UK is reliant on gas for its home heating and uses a significant amount for electricity generation.
As of yesterday, UK storage sites are 26% lower than at the same time last year, meaning they are half full, said Centrica.
Gas storage was already lower than usual entering December due to the early start of winter. Combined with high gas prices, this made it more difficult to top up the storage over Christmas.
“The UK’s gas storage levels are concerningly low,” said Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive of Centrica.
“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.
“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.
“If Rough had been operating at full capacity in recent years, it would have saved UK households £100 from both their gas and their electricity bills each winter.
“We stand ready to invest £2bn of our own money in upgrading and redeveloping the Rough gas storage facility but we urgently need the cap and floor model recently announced for long duration energy storage to be applicable to Rough.
“With that, we can create thousands of new jobs in construction and safeguard a vital national asset. Without that, UK consumers will continue to have higher energy bills than is necessary.”
