Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to ensure that there are no electricity blackouts during winter 2015-16.

Ensuring that hardworking families and businesses across the country have secure, affordable energy supplies they can rely on is our top priority.

We have worked with National Grid to put in place an effective plan which worked well last winter. National Grid has everything they need to manage the system this winter.

National Grid have secured 2.55GW of flexible generation in reserve for use this winter. With this in place, National Grid forecast a margin of 5.1% for this winter, which will ensure a high level of energy security even in the toughest system conditions.