Britain heading back to the dark ages

The UK is facing a tipping point over the next few years in its ability to generate enough power to satisfy an ever-increasing demand.

When California was hit with a spate of crippling power cuts eight years ago, it was not simply the fault of an unscrupulous energy supplier called Enron manipulating prices.

The power company was blamed for meddling with the market, but state politicians were also forced to admit that their lack of investment in new electricity plants had contributed to the shortages.

Rupert Soames, the chief executive of Aggreko, the FTSE 250 emergency power generator, says the UK must prepare seriously for the danger of being hit by similar blackouts within the next decade.

“It has happened before in developed countries and we should not kid ourselves that it cannot happen here,” he said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph.

“The UK has an unacceptably high risk of interrupted power supply and I have enormous doubt about whether new plants are going to be built in time.”

Telegraph