Officials from the UK’s National Grid have sworn to the public that the country will avoid blackouts this winter, though they have admitted that prices will end up being “very high”.
Britons will be able to light their home this winter, so long as they are willing to pay an arm and a leg, officials from the country’s National Grid have said.
While not directly reliant on Russian imports, the Europe-wide gas shortage has seen the price of energy for UK households rise substantially, with third-party research indicating that bills could rise to around £500 (~$600) by January next year.
According to a report by The Guardian, the National Grid has claimed that Britons will be able to get energy should they be willing to pay for it, though the organisation also admitted that there could be a few “tight periods” around early December in this regard.
To help alleviate the pressure, the publication goes on to note that energy officials may end rolling out a trialled plan that saw some energy users paid to dramatically reduce the amount of energy they use within certain periods, a measure that it is thought could prevent rolling blackouts.
The Telegraph meanwhile is reporting that Britain will be dependent on imported power from mainland Europe over the winter months, though this plan is reportedly seen by some experts as being high risk considering the continent’s own power struggles, and could result in the country experiencing blackouts after all.
While the grid expects that light switches will remain operational in UK family homes this winter, the cost of operating said switches is likely rise substantially, with officials saying that the price of energy is likely to get “very high”.
This mirrors research reported upon by the Financial Times, which points to the price of energy bills rising to over £400 (~$485.14) in December, and over half a thousand in January.
“It’s down to the government to do something as these figures are shocking, we’re going to see vast swaths of households fall into energy poverty,” Gemma Berwick from the consultancy firm that undertook the research said.
“It’s the prepayment households that are a real concern for me,” she continued. “While many households can spread the higher winter bills over the course of the year, prepayment families — often among the most vulnerable — are looking at bills of at least £434 in December and more than £500 in January.”
This is extremely bad news for Britons who are already struggling to pay their bills, with one in five households now reportedly being forced to make cuts as their spending on basics outstrips their income.