British Gas has warned customers over a “perfect storm” which has reduced UK winter gas storage to “concerningly low” levels. The UK’s gas storage is under pressure this winter as the UK battles both extreme cold and high gas prices amid the ongoing cold snap.
UK storage sites are 26% lower than last year’s inventory at the same time, leaving them around half full. This means the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store. Gas storage was already lower than usual heading into December as a result of the early onset of winter.
Combined with stubbornly high gas prices, this has meant that it has been more difficult to top up storage over Christmas. “The UK’s gas storage levels are concerningly low. We are an outlier from the rest of Europe when it comes to the role of storage in our energy system and we are now seeing the implications of that” said Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive of Centrica.
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“As we work towards Clean Power 2030, long-duration energy storage will be needed more than ever in order to help balance a system that is increasingly reliant on renewables. Energy storage is what keeps the lights on and homes warm when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, so investing in our storage capacity makes perfect economic sense.
“We need to think of storage as a very valuable insurance policy. Like any insurance policy, it may not always be needed, but having more capacity helps protect against worst-case scenarios.” He said: “If Rough had been operating at full capacity in recent years, it would have saved UK households £100 from both their gas and their electricity bills each winter.
“We stand ready to invest £2bn of our own money in upgrading and redeveloping the Rough gas storage facility but we urgently need the cap and floor model recently announced for long duration energy storage to be applicable to Rough. With that, we can create thousands of new jobs in construction and safeguard a vital national asset.
“Without that, UK consumers will continue to have higher energy bills than is necessary.”