Shadow over Energy as stations shut

THE future of British Energy was under further scrutiny on Thursday after the electricity generator admitted 25% of its nuclear power stations are still out of commission.

It comes amid renewed claims from energy industry engineers and political think-tanks that Britain is teetering on the brink of damaging power cuts this Christmas.

Despite earlier claims that emergency safety works on its installations at Sizewell in Suffolk, and Heysham, Lancashire would be concluded by this weekend, British Energy was forced to admit the latter will be closed until the end of the month.

The unplanned outages mean BE has put a huge strain on the group's ability to hit its minimum output targets for the year and is fast eating up what small financial reserves the near-bust company has. The Government is currently funding the company with a £210m credit line and its City fixer, Adrian Montague, is running the company.

The loss of generating plant at what is Britain's single largest energy producer will put a further strain on the ability of power stations to met peaks of winter demand.

On Thursday, the Institution of Civil Engineers warned it was now 'critical' that new gas storage facilities were brought on line to beef up energy reserves and reduce the risk of blackouts. Industry watchers believe the National Grid could come under intense pressure this winter, given the most recent projected demand and cutbacks in generating capacity.

Last December, a record demand surge and the breakdown of some power stations pushed the industry's reserve capacity worryingly close to minimum levels.

David Anderson, chairman of the ICE's Energy Board, said: 'Nothing has changed in the world of generation other than the plant is a year older. I think energy providers will be very concerned going into this winter.'

Meanwhile, the Adam Smith Institute attacked the Government for 'an energy policy mess that makes blackouts more certain'.