Is the UK facing years of blackouts?

It is one of the more emotive headlines you can read and it has been doing the rounds in the past couple of days: the UK is said to be facing years of "blackouts".

Sparking off the latest source of alarm are comments from Paul Massara, the former chief executive of energy supplier npower.

During a panel session organised by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, Massara rubbished the government's optimistic forecasts that energy capacity will begin to increase from next winter.

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In contrast, he said Britain would have only negligible spare supply during peak winter demand periods and so could remain on the brink of the lights going out for up to four years, the Daily Express reports.

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd (pictured above) has been under fire over apparent inconsistencies in policy that has seen the government announce the end of coal-fired power within a decade, to meet climate change carbon-reduction targets, while at the same time cutting support for some renewable energy schemes and funding contingency supply from some of the most polluting sources.

At the same time, it has had to contend with the early closure of some old coal-fired power stations that no longer make money – and its attempts to develop a new generation of nuclear power stations are being beset by long delays amid funding concerns.

But while expressing concern at the level of spare capacity, Massara maintained that the UK will not actually suffer 1970s-style blackouts.

Experts generally agree the chances of widespread power cuts remain "remote", says The Guardian, because there are a number of measures that can be deployed to respond to a surge in demand. These include managing power dynamically across the grid to link local demand with supply, securing more energy supply from Europe and "demand-side response" that limits the drain from high energy users such as factories if demand surges.