UK government ministers are war gaming plans to cope with power blackouts this Winter.
Documents marked “official sensitive” suggest that food, water supplies and communication could be severely disrupted in the event of a national power outage.
According to The Mail Online:
Whitehall officials are stress-testing Programme Yarrow – the secret plan to cope with blackouts which includes prioritising getting food, water and shelter to the young and elderly, as well as those with caring responsibilities – amid fears that Russian aggression in Ukraine has sparked an energy crisis this winter.
It is understood that the type of technical fault envisaged under the plans includes an attack by a hostile foreign power on underwater power cables – following attacks against the Nord Stream energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea widely blamed on Moscow – as well as flood damage and thunderstorms.
It comes as the Met Office warns of an increased chance of a colder-than-usual winter this year which could put further pressure on gas and electricity supplies.
Programme Yarrow prepares for a situation more severe than that outlined by National Grid last month, which warned of three-hour rolling blackouts.
The plans envisage that 60% of electricity demand will be met ‘between day 2 and day 7’ when households and businesses will be given ‘intermittent access’ to ration supply.
Households businesses will be given 24 hours’ notice of a planned outage, and the plan could be published up to a week ahead on a rolling basis.
The ‘rota disconnection plan’ is designed to cut power evenly across the country according to documents seen by The Guardian.
The power cuts should initially only take place once a day for three hours, although it could take up to an hour to reconnect after that – though the frequency of cuts will depend on the severity of the crisis.
And under Programme Yarrow’s worst-case scenario, only analogue FM radios would work, with just BBC Radio 2 and 4 broadcasting.
One Whitehall source told the paper: ‘We need to think about how we can help people in advance. The fact they’re talking about it now means they have a real concern it could happen.’
