The British government has “war gamed” emergency plans to cope with energy blackouts lasting up to seven days in the event of a national power outage amid growing fears over security of supply this winter.
The Guardian has seen documents, marked “official sensitive”, which warn that in a “reasonable worst-case scenario” all sectors including transport, food and water supply, communications and energy could be “severely disrupted” for up to a week.
They show that ministers will prioritise getting food, water and shelter to the young and elderly people, as well as those with caring responsibilities, if the country experiences blackouts, with the Met Office warning that Britain faces a higher risk of a cold winter.
Whitehall officials are currently stress-testing Programme Yarrow, the confidential plan for coping in the event of a power outage, and have held a series of exercises with government departments and councils across the country in recent days.
In the worst-case scenario outlined in the plan, only analogue FM radios would work, with just BBC Radio 2 and 4 broadcasting, and uncertainties around local radio as some stations only have a few hours of backup generator cover.
Programme Yarrow prepares for a situation where power is unavailable, without any pre-warning, to all premises without backup generators during winter. It envisages 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.
