DESNZ Refuse To Release Information On Grid Backup Capacity

By Paul Homewood

When the grid came close to blackouts on 8th January, NESO claimed that they actually still had plenty of spare capacity in reserve, a claim widely derided by experts at the time.

So I sent an FOI to DESNZ asking for details on exactly what NESO’s reserves actually consisted of.

I have now received a reply, stating that they refuse supply the information citing commercial confidentiality. This appears to be nonsense, as any arrangements made by NESO should be publicly available, just as they are for the Capacity Market and system balancing arrangements.

There is only one conclusion that can be made – NESO most certainly did not have the spare capacity they claimed to have, and are desperately attempting to cover this fact up.