Will there be blackouts this winter?

The debate about energy has, understandably, concentrated on what is going to happen to households bills. The numbers are alarming. The energy price cap is now predicted to peak at £3,649 in April 2023, meaning that the average household bill will be above £3,000 for more than a year. As I say in the Times today, this is going to require a response from whoever is prime minister.

But less attention has been paid to the question of whether there’ll be sufficient energy this autumn and winter. National Grid is suggesting that the UK will avoid blackouts. But it is not hard to see how they could end up taking place. As Covid showed, in times of crisis contracts across borders are not always honoured, a problem for the UK given that we tend to import energy from the continent in the colder months.