UK Resilience
Last updated: 28 October 2008
Incidents such as the January 2007 gales, the North East water supply failure in January 2005 and the widespread flooding in June and July 2007, have demonstrated that effective co-ordination and communication between local responders and suppliers lead to effective recovery within the power (fuel, electricity, gas) and communications (landline and mobile) sectors.
Restoration of significantly damaged services can take a considerable period of time (days or weeks in some instances), and responders and suppliers need to work together to provide support to the affected communities. Critical to this is a joint understanding of how long services will take to restore, and in which order services will be restored.
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) holds policy responsibility in Great Britain for gas and electricity supplies. In the unlikely scenario that there is insufficient gas or electricity supplies to meet demand, BERR have a number of response tools available to help manage the situation and mitigate the impacts.
In the event of a gas supply emergency, the Network Emergency Co-ordinator (NEC), an industry senior manager, can use powers under the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations GS(M)R to control supply and demand. The NEC can direct five stages of a network gas supply emergency;
| Stage | Description | Power |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Potential Emergency | Isolation of supplies to large non-domestic consumers with interruptible supply contracts |
| 2 | Actual Emergency | Maximisation of beach gas and storage. Suspension of the commercial arrangements. |
| 3 | Firm Load Shedding | Isolation of supplies to large non-domestic consumers with firm supply contracts. |
| 4 | Network Isolation | Isolation of local gas networks including domestic and non-domestic consumers. |
| 5 | Restoration | Phased restoration of gas supplies. |
In the event of a gas supply emergency, there are three categories of priority (protected) consumer;
Priority users receive limited protection and are not protected against a local supply failure or damage to the service pipe work and associated equipment.
Further information can be found on the BERR website [External website].
The initial response to an electricity supply emergency is led by the industry using powers that enable them to control short term electricity generation and demand. Most incidents are managed in this way.
Because of the need to act quickly the industry cannot usually protect any particular customers from disconnection or prioritise their reconnection. They are however aware of the importance of providing power as quickly as possible to critical sites such as hospitals and will take these into account when it is possible to prioritise reconnection.
In the event of a prolonged electricity supply emergency either across a region or nationally, it may be necessary to restrict the demand and consumption of electricity. In this far more remote situation the Government can use emergency powers to instruct the electricity industry to retain supplies to key sites (see next paragraph) and share the electricity available among all other customers by the use of rota disconnections where consumers are cut off in blocks for 3 hours at a time on a pre–planned rota.
Certain categories of organisation can apply for inclusion on the priority user lists that provide exemption from these rota disconnections (but not from the much more likely causes of electricity disruption). Further information on these arrangements can be found on the BERR website [External website] .
The Energywatch questions and answers webpage[External website] sets out what people should do in the event of a power cut or gas/electricity emergency.
Technical incidents occur from time to time in the downstream oil sector without any discernable impact on supplies, and are managed and resolved by the companies concerned. Oil companies have well practiced Emergency Response measures.
BERR is the lead Government department for coordinating the response to a significant disruption to supply or demand patterns in the downstream oil sector in the United Kingdom. As part of the ongoing programme of work conducted by the Government to build resilience to disruptive challenges, BERR has developed with key stakeholders the National Emergency Plan for Fuel.
The Plan identifies how resources of the downstream oil industry and Government can be used in an emergency. It also identifies the command structure and teams available to provide leadership and industry knowledge to enable the Government to select and use one or more appropriate emergency response tools to manage any significant disruption.
Further information on these arrangements can be found on the BERR website [External website] .
The Electronic Communications – Resilience and Response Group (EC RRG) is a quarterly, tripartite meeting between industry, Government (BERR) and Ofcom. The forum fosters the development and sharing of best practice and owns the National Emergency Plan for Telecoms along with its associated alert process – NEAT (National Emergency Alert for Telecoms). Further information and an overview of the national emergency plan can be accessed from the Ofcom website[External website]
Guidance and legislation related to water and sewerage providers can be found on the UK Resilience website
The Welsh Assembly Government is responsible for water policy in Wales including:
The Assembly Government works closely with Environment Agency Wales[External website] to manage:
and the Office of Water Services (OFWAT)[External website] which is responsible for economic regulations of the water industry.
In Scotland, the policy responsibility for Scottish Water (a public corporation, the sole water and sewerage undertaker in Scotland) rests with the Scottish Executive under Scottish legislation. These organisations work closely together with Defra and the rest of the water industry in England and Wales to ensure that all plans will operate together if required. There is a similar Direction in place to that for England and Wales.
In Northern Ireland the Water Service Agency reports to the Department for Regional Development. Further information can be found on the UK Resilience website
The Planning for Major Water and Wastewater Incidents in England and Wales – Generic Guidance sets out the respective responsibilities at the local, regional and national levels
Electricity power suppliers have to take reasonable measures to avoid disruption. They may face a financial penalty if the numbers of people without power go above a certain threshold. For further information about this please contact your local power supplier in the first instance.
The Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) is the Lead Government department for co-ordinating the response to a national non-terrorist related disruption within the power (fuel, electricity, gas) and communications sectors in the United Kingdom.
Defra is the lead Government Department for water and wastewater incidents in England.
If the scale of the incident required co-ordinated UK central government action, most departments, including the Devolved Administrations and the Government Offices are likely to be involved in the response due to the wide ranging consequences that are likely to arise. The Concept of Operations document [PDF] describes how the UK central government response would be organised.
For water and wastewater, the Welsh Assembly leads in Wales. The Planning for Major Water and Wastewater Incidents in England and Wales – Generic Guidance [PDF] sets out respective responsibilities:
Power and telecommunications are not devolved in Wales. However, the Welsh Assembly Government will have a role to play in the recovery work where the consequences impact upon devolved functions.
For water and wastewater, the Scottish Executive leads in Scotland.
For water and wastewater in Northern Ireland, the Water Service Agency reports to the Department for Regional Development.
In Northern Ireland, the equivalent Department to BERR is the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Industry. They hold policy responsibility for their Downstream Gas and Electricity National Emergency Plan.
Hexham water supply failure: 8 January 2005
The Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) can be contacted through the Regional Resilience Team in the relevant Government Office.
Emergency contacts for the energy and telecommunications sectors (dedicated numbers not available for use by the public) are held by the Regional Resilience Teams and Local Resilience Forums.
The (non-statutory) guidance on who to contact if businesses or individuals experience a gas/electricity failure can be found on the Preparing for Emergencies website.[External website]
www.berr.gov.uk/energy/index.html [External website]
www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/security/ [External website]
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk [External website]
www.detini.gov.uk/ [External website]
General Enquiries: Defra Helpline: 08459 33 55 77
Email: helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/[External website]
In an emergency: Duty Room 020 7270 8960
www.water.org.uk/ [External website]
General enquiries: Cabinet Office, 22 Whitehall, London SW1A 2WH.
Contact: via feedback form.
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