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The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has released a series of responses to the recent gas balancing alerts (GBA)
issued by the National Grid over the last week.
Commenting on the gas balancing alert (GBA) issued by the National Grid on 6 January, director general of the Institution of Civil Engineers Tom Foulkes said:
“With severe weather warnings being issued across the country and more snow predicted over the next week, the threat of gas shortages is a very serious problem. Mirroring the events of last January, it is a stark reminder of just how dependent we are on imported gas.
“The UK’s energy policy has not managed to keep pace with changing demands in recent years, leaving us vulnerable to fluctuating international markets. To avoid energy crises and price hikes in the future the UK energy sector must urgently build extra gas storage capacity into the network. We simply cannot continue to rely on unpredictable overseas supplies.”
Commenting on the second gas balancing alert (GBA) issued by the National Grid on 7 January, Foulkes said:
“The UK’s gas policy needs urgent re-thinking. We are far too dependent on gas, with over 70% of the UK’s homes reliant on gas for domestic heating.
“This dependence is a throw-back to the 1990s when we had an abundant supply of gas in the North Sea and it was cheaper than other sources. However, nowadays we depend heavily on international markets and as the last few days have shown, they are not reliable and will end up costing us dearly.
“The UK has the largest demand for gas in Europe but we have very little storage capacity in comparison. It makes sense commercially and for ongoing security of supply to focus on urgently redressing this imbalance.”
Source: © ICE
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