MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

BBC has emergency scripts in the event of blackouts Jan/Feb in the UK, Guardian reports

“The government has said it’s hoped power will be restored in the next 36 to 48 hours. Different parts of UK will start to receive intermittent supplies before then.”

The Guardian has reported that BBC has prepared a number of emergency scripts in the event of blackouts that could last up to two days this winter. One quote from the script reads, “The government has said it’s hoped power will be restored in the next 36 to 48 hours. Different parts of Britain will start to receive intermittent supplies before then.”

Another warns the public that a blackout could last for up to 48 hours, putting extreme pressure on hospitals and the police. The load shedding would be done between 4 pm and 7 pm, normally peak demand hours.

The scripts, per The Guardian, are part of routine preparation for emergencies, since the BBC is effectively part of the UK government’s response team in such situations, in charge of spreading information about the events.

The threat of blackouts, however, is not as purely hypothetical as it might have been a couple of winters ago. Earlier this week, National Grid’s chief executive issued a warning for three-hour blackouts on “really, really cold” evenings in the first two months of next year.

In case there was no gas to import from Europe, John Pettigrew said, as quoted by the Financial Times, National Grid would need to resort to load-shedding during “those deepest darkest evenings in January and February”.

To reduce the risk of these blackouts, the utility advises a curb in energy consumption, just like the rest of Europe where EU leaders have been struggling to find a way to secure enough gas for this year’s heating season.