By Susanna Twidale
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain must build gas plants or refurbish existing ones to improve energy security and address the risk of blackouts, the government said on Tuesday.
As part of efforts to meet climate targets and ensure supply, Britain is seeking to increase its nuclear and wind power capacity but said more gas generation will also be needed to provide back up.
“Without gas backing up renewables, we face the genuine prospect of blackouts... We will not let ourselves be put in that position,” Energy Minister Claire Coutinho told a conference in London.
As the country's ageing power plants close, she said they will need to be replaced by around 5 gigawatts of capacity from new gas plants or refurbished older ones.
The plants would also need to be net-zero ready, meaning they could switch to cleaner hydrogen fuel or add technology to capture carbon emissions when they become commercially viable
Coutinho said the plan was compatible with the country's goal of net zero emissions by 2050 since the gas plants would typically be running for shorter hours, in a back-up capacity.
Critics say new gas capacity could make reaching the country's climate goals more difficult and extend reliance on expensive fossil fuels.
"The government's cunning plan to boost energy security and meet our climate goals is to make Britain more dependent on the very fossil fuel that sent our bills rocketing and the planet's temperature soaring," Dr Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, said.
Around a third of the country's electricity comes from gas, a reliance that contributed to soaring bills when gas prices hit record highs in 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Currently, wholesale electricity prices are set nationally, but the government's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on Tuesday proposed a zonal market that would mean consumers were charged depending on where they are based.
“A significant proportion of our energy is located away from areas of high demand ... Different wholesale prices could better match supply and demand and bring down costs for people across the country,” DESNZ said in a statement.
Zonal electricity pricing is already used in some European countries, including Italy, Norway and Sweden.
The announcements are part of a consultation into the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) launched in 2022 to reform the electricity market.