By Rowena Mason
Published: 6:39AM GMT 11 Jan 2010
The cold weather has been
accompanied by high pressure and a lack of wind, which meant that only 0.2pc of
a possible 5pc of the
Jeremy Nicholson, director of the
Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG), gave warning that this could turn into a
crisis when the UK is reliant on 6,400 turbines accounting for a quarter of all
UK electricity demand over the next 10 years.
He said the shortfall in power
generated by wind during cold snaps seriously undermined the Government's
pledge on Friday to build nine major new wind "super farms" by 2020.
"If we had this 30 gigawatts of wind power, it wouldn't have
contributed anything of any significance this winter," he said. "The
current cold snap is a warning that our power generation and gas supplies are
under strain and it is getting worse."
Coal stations are currently used
as back-up generation when there is a surge in demand for gas and the wind does
not blow – which both tend to happen during cold weather.
However, increased dependence on
wind farms will coincide with a European Union directive shutting down
The
The EIUG, which represents the
major steel, chemicals, paper, cement, glass, ceramics and aluminium companies,
said many of its members were worried about the prospect of future gas
rationing.
"It will be industry that
gets its gas switched off first," Mr Nicholson said. "Just imagine
going through the winter we're having now when energy demand has gone back up to
pre-recession levels, we're more reliant on wind and 60pc of supply comes from
gas compared with 40pc now.
"What is industry going to
switch to using?"
Andrew Horstead, a risk analyst
for energy consultant Utilyx, said current plans to build 30 gigawatts of wind
farms could have serious consequences for the security of the
"This week's surge in demand
for energy in response to the cold weather raises serious concerns about the
"We need to ensure that
energy can be quickly accessed in times of peak demand through improved gas
storage and investment in clean-coal and nuclear power stations.
"Failure to address these
concerns could mean further rationing of energy in future years and could even
lead to black-outs, so it is vital that the UK Government takes action now to
avoid the lights going off."
Last week, National Grid was
forced to issue two warnings about gas supply as demand surged to a record
high, forcing it to ask 95 companies to turn off their pipelines.
It lifted the warning on Friday,
after problems with Norwegian pipeline gas supply were fixed, but demand may
continue
to rise next week with experts forecasting more snow.
In his latest podcast from Number
10, Mr Brown insisted that the
"National Grid has confirmed
that it expects supplies to meet demand. I can assure you: supplies are not
running out.
"We've got plenty of gas, of
course, in our own back yard – the North Sea – and we also have access to the
large reserves in