EDF announced one of its nuclear reactors in Scotland was unexpectedly shut down yesterday.

In a statement, the firm said the Torness power station unit 2 automatically closed during a routine testing while an issue was detected in an electrical system.

The reactor shut down safely and there were no environmental impacts, EDF claims.

As a consequence, Edinburgh-based demand response provider Flexitricity was called to secure power supply by National Grid.

Alastair Martin, Chief Strategy officer at Flexitricity said: “The unplanned shutdown of Torness resulted in a call for reserve power from Flexitricity to fill the gap. We responded by quickly lowering consumption at commercial sites like cold stores and by turning up highly efficient combined heat and power generators across our connected network.”

EDF said the reactor will re-open soon.

Earlier this year, the firm announced it started a £30 million refurbishment of one of the two reactors at Torness power station.