>

Report published into August blackouts which affected Oakham and villages

By The Editor

3rd Jan 2020 | Local News

A report into the blackouts in August that affected more than one million customers – including residents and businesses in Oakham and surrounding villages – has been published today (Fri).

The Energy Emergencies Executive Committee (E3C) report unveils government-backed plans to strengthen Great Britain's power network and make it more resilient to outages in future.

Business and Energy Secretary Andrea Leadsom has confirmed the action plan from today's E3C report will be implemented in full, to help prevent and manage future power disruptions.

The report was requested by Ms Leadsom following the power outage of 9 August and it focuses on the areas of highest impact before, during and after the incident.

Power was restored to disconnected customers within 45 minutes, but the knock-on impact to essential services such as rail were felt for several days after.

Ms Leadsom said: "The disruption caused to people and businesses by the power cut in August was unacceptable.

"However, customers can be confident that we have one of the most robust energy systems in the world and today's report will help us reduce the risks of it happening again and ensure our energy sector is better prepared in the future.

"As the UK works to eradicate its contribution to climate change by 2050, the actions in this report will form part of a wider package of work already underway across government and industry to ensure the UK's energy system remains resilient as we transition to clean and affordable energy."

The action plan includes:

• assessing the need for improvements to the governance, monitoring and enforcement processes for large and smaller generators

• reviewing the pros and cons of requiring National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) to hold additional back-up generation

• supporting essential services owners and operators to put in place more robust business continuity plans

• rolling out new communications processes to ensure the general public receives regular updates during any future disruptions

Ofgem has also published the conclusions of its own investigations into the incident last August today, focusing on lessons learnt for the energy sector and voluntary payments totalling £10.5 million for companies involved in the power outages.

The E3C will take the actions set out in its report, along with the findings from Ofgem's investigation, to drive forward changes across the sector.

     

New oakham Jobs Section Launched!!
Vacancies updated hourly!!
Click here: oakham jobs

Share:

Related Articles

Rutland Water has been labelled by property experts as a more affordable, less trendy version of the Cotswolds. (Photo: Nub News)
Local News

Property experts describe Rutland as the ‘Notswolds’: ‘The Cotswolds without the price tag’

The Old Oakhamian Freemasons raised £1,000 for the local Air Ambulance (Photo: Old Oakhamians)
Local News

Oakham Freemasons raise £1,000 to support local lifesaving services

Sign-Up for our FREE Newsletter

We want to provide oakham with more and more clickbait-free local news.
To do that, we need a loyal newsletter following.
Help us survive and sign up to our FREE weekly newsletter.

Already subscribed? Thank you. Just press X or click here.
We won't pass your details on to anyone else.
By clicking the Subscribe button you agree to our Privacy Policy.