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Power Failures

Asked by Nick TimothyConservativeDepartment for Energy Security and Net ZeroTabled Answered 16 July 2025UIN 65944

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how he plans to improve the integration of (a) demand-side response and (b) distributed energy resources to help reduce risks of blackouts in the next five years.

Answered by Michael Shanks

Great Britain has a highly resilient energy network. The National Energy System Operator has all the tools it needs to operate the electricity system reliably and can call on a range of technologies to balance electricity supply and demand, including gas-fired generation and flexible technologies such as batteries and demand side response.

The Clean Power 2030 Action Plan sets out measures to increase consumer led flexibility (also known as demand-side response). Further details will be set out in the Clean Flexibility Roadmap that Government committed in the Action Plan to publish this year.

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