Parliamentarians on the UK government's Trade and Industry Select Committee have been warned about a possible gap between the shutdown of the current nuclear generating fleet and construction of a new tranche, according to a newspaper report.
The Guardian newspaper reports that Chris Murray, a senior executive with National Grid, has told MPs that the UK faces a power supply crunch as any new build of civil reactors are unlikely to be ready in time to immediately replace the existing fleet as it is wound down for decommissioning over the next decade or so.
Likewise in gas, National Grid says that had the Rough gas storage platform been shut any earlier in the year than it was, it would have been forced to issue more gas supply alerts over possible disruption to the flow to end users.
Mr Murray also cautioned that just because more gas storage capacity was being built, this did not necessarily mean that it would in reality be used, the Guardian says.