The Government has been accused of “washing its hands” of claims electricity bosses covered up near-miss blackouts during June’s heatwave.
A whistleblower has alleged senior staff at the National Energy System Operator (Neso) tried to conceal grid stability problems as the country struggled in the heat on June 23.
It is also alleged the corporate affairs team at Britain’s publicly owned electricity and gas system operator “interfered in operational decisions” in a bid to protect the organisation’s reputation.
Neso has said it “operated securely” during “an unprecedented period of extreme heat and tight margins across Great Britain and Europe”.
It insisted only authorised staff are involved in its operations. It has brought in independent investigators to look into the allegations, which were first raised by Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho.
It is claimed the grid fell outside safe operating limits for “multiple periods” on June 23.
Had the situation worsened, it could have led to deliberate, localised power cuts to protect the wider system.
Wind turbines were generating little power and several gas-fired stations were suffering from outages.
Meanwhile, energy demand was high, partly because of fans and air conditioning used to tackle the heat.
The Government staunchly denied suggestions that blackouts had been imminent and insisted it was taking the issue “incredibly seriously”.
Ms Coutinho used an urgent question in Parliament to demand answers.
She said: “Control room operators at the National Energy System Operator have the life-or-death job of balancing our electricity supply and demand.If they don’t get it right, we will have blackouts, and in blackouts, people die. It is that serious.”
She said “multiple whistleblowers” had approached her to claim that on June 23 the operator failed to meet grid security standards that were “put in place to prevent blackouts”.
They also claimed the corporate affairs team interfered with operational decisions and that decisions are being recorded in live documents “with no audit trail”.
She said: “I’ve raised this twice now in the house, and, despite the seriousness of the allegations, shockingly, on both occasions, the Government dismissed me as scaremongering. Considering the consequences of blackouts to people’s lives, this is nothing short of a disgrace. Neso has now agreed to do an external independent investigation. This is positive. However, whilst the government washes its hands of this situation, the investigation that has been set up is a complete sham.”
She said the inquiry would not look into whether the grid was run securely or investigate if there was a breach on June 23.
It would also not offer anonymity to staff who came forward, she said.
Energy Minister Michael Shanks denied her claim the Government was “washing its hands” of the matter.
An external legal firm was conducting a full investigation into the claims, he said, with the result due in the coming weeks.
Neso has already stated all operational decisions are taken by authorised staff, Mr Shanks told the Commons.
It has also been said it does not tell its staff to avoid keeping records.
Mr Shanks said: “I want to make it very clear that during this period of unprecedented extreme heat, the Great British grid remained stable, no customers were impacted by tight electricity margins and Neso had a number of tools available to them to ensure our energy security. Great Britain has one of the most resilient energy systems in the world, and the Government works closely with Neso and the wider sector to ensure that this resilience is constantly maintained.”
He added: “We take this very seriously, so nobody is washing their hands of this matter at all.”
Mr Shanks said it was “simply not the case” that blackouts were imminent and claimed it was “absolutely irresponsible, in this place and on social media, to suggest that our energy system was at risk in recent periods”.
“We met the electricity demand on every single one of the days in question,” he said. “I don’t for a second doubt that it was difficult on some of those days, as it was across all of Europe.”
