Emergency plans for rolling electricity blackouts have been “war gamed” by the government as supply fears grow.
Documents, marked “official sensitive”, 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.
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.
The plan was originally drawn up in 2021, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to improve planning and resilience in the event of a major technical fault on the National Grid. It is unrelated to the energy outlooks published by the National Grid for this winter.
