Britain’s media outlets have carried many
stories about an ‘energy gap’, claimed to have
arisen because the UK has failed to build
enough power stations to meet demand. Talk
of upcoming ‘blackouts’, with the UK unable to
produce enough electricity to keep the lights on,
is commonplace, with several hundred articles
published in mainstream UK newspapers on
this topic over the last decade. These claims
have always been contested by the government
and electricity system operator, National Grid,
but the debate continues. This Briefing Paper,
produced by Energy Futures Lab, reviews the
evidence to determine whether the UK will face
an electricity security crisis in the coming years.