Britain asked Europe for energy to keep the lights on in southeast England

A fault in the National Grid network meant that imports from the Netherlands had to increase

Britain was forced to seek emergency assistance from Europe to keep the lights on in southeast England.

It has been reported that National Grid sought emergency assistance for 500MW of power, equal to around 1% of national demand on Wednesday.

Reports have claimed that hundreds of thousands of homes may have suffered electricity blackouts because of a supposed circuit fault in the southern electricity transmission network.

The Times reported exports to France were first cut back before subsea cable imports from the Netherlands were increased.

The increased imports could offset the impact of the fault in the energy system.

Phil Hewitt, who works at the consultancy of EnAppSys told the newspaper this type of assistance is “unusual” and occurs a few times throughout the year.

Earlier this week, the system operator used its emergency Demand Flexibility Service to pay households to use less electricity on Monday and on Tuesday.

It has also ordered backup coal plants to be warmed for potential use on both days.

ELN has approached National Grid ESO for comment.

Make sure you check out the latest Net Hero Podcast episode:

Latest Podcast