National Energy System Operator: Blackout Risk

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Monday 20th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

As far as whistleblowing is concerned, I can speak only to this particular episode, but I point to the Government’s response—or, rather, the response of NESO and other bodies—in developing very rapidly a forum in which whistleblowers can confidentially and without any concerns about their own future or safety participate in an inquiry into what has taken place. Indeed, the separation of that inquiry from senior management underlines how seriously the Government take this issue but also how they wish to make sure that whistleblowers are given the proper protection and status that their concerns merit.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, first, in welcoming my noble friend’s response, can he confirm that there was no loss of supply to customers on the occasion of the incidents referred to? Secondly, in response to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, in which he attacked the Government’s investment in wind and solar, will the Minster reflect on the national security assessment published earlier this year? That report stated:

“Global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity”.


Does that not make it so much more important that we continue with the decarbonisation of our energy supply?

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

Yes, that does make it very important that we continue decarbonising our energy systems to make sure that they are very resilient in a different climate that we will have in the future, and that the consequences of, for example, continuing to provide energy via high-carbon fossil fuels are countered by the systems being thoroughly low-carbon in the future. This has a bearing on the recent episodes as far as energy margin notices are concerned. We have had a period of extreme heat in the UK that is very likely the consequence of climate change, and this has produced some system resilience issues. However, the system was easily resilient enough to cope with that particular issue: there were no blackouts, there was no loss of power for customers or industry, and the stability of the system was maintained at around the 50 hertz mark at all times.