National Grid cancels warning over electricity supply shortage that could have hit tonight

THE National Grid has cancelled a warning over fears of an electricity supply shortage for tonight.

In the first alert of this kind since August, the electricity network operator had said it could have struggled to match demand during this evening's peak from 7pm.

It meant power issues may have been experienced when many people turned on their appliances after getting home from work.

However, the National Grid quickly cancelled the warning - saying it had been triggered automatically.

Even if there was reduced energy due to an shortage, it's unlikely blackouts would happen - only possibly occurring in isolated areas with prior warning.

The National Grid said on Twitter: "The ESO is confident that electricity margins are sufficient for this evening. However, a capacity market notice (CMN) has been triggered by the automated system.

"CMN forecasts are issued automatically and are only based on information in the public domain. They do not take into account all the factors which our engineers are working on.

"The ESO has now withdrawn the Capacity Market Notice issued at 2:33pm today."

The grid had planned to reduce consumption for an hour from 5.30pm from today in a trial run of its new Demand Flexibility Scheme.

The nation is going into the winter cold snap with the tightest supply buffer in seven years.

Phil Hewitt, director at energy consultancy Enappsys, told the : "This is the first tight day of the winter but it is not super tight. 

"It is a small appetizer of tightness, there will be much tighter days ahead."

Enappsys also tweeted a graphic showing the National Grid's supply margins and explaining that the Capacity Mechanism Notice was triggered for 7pm.

However, they said blackouts were unlikely as the grid would use "interconnector trading", which allows them to increase energy imports rapidly.

Despite this, the blackout warning piled the pressure on Brits in the midst of a cost of living and energy bill crisis.

The squeeze on the grid comes as wind power generation fell to less than half of the 10,000 megawatts produced yesterday, with 3,958 at noon.

While the National Grid said it was confident its reserves would be enough, the pinch was tight enough to trigger the automatic alert for 7pm.