Agencies/London

Contingency plans to prevent potential energy blackouts this winter include paying firms to generate their own power and shifting factory production to off-peak times, the energy secretary has said.
Ed Davey also declared: “There will be no blackouts. Period.”
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the Liberal Democrat minister sought to allay fears of an “energy crunch” following several fires at power stations and the closure of others.
He said: “We have extra contingencies on top of the caution, and extra contingencies on top of the contingencies.” The government is expected to announce new contingency measures this week to ensure supplies are secure, and options for reducing demand if it is needed.
It follows concerns about energy security after a fire forced the closure of Didcot B, a gas-fired station in Oxfordshire which produces enough electricity to meet the needs of 1mn households.
It was reduced to half capacity after a blaze broke out in one of the two cooling tower modules at the site. The Didcot incident is the latest blaze to hit Britain’s power capacity, with Ironbridge and Ferrybridge crippled by fires earlier this year. Energy supply has also been hit by plans to close a site at Barking in east London.
The UK is facing an energy crunch over the next two winters when the capacity margin - how much its total generating capacity outstrips expected peak demand - is expected to shrink to as little as 2%.
Davey added that while the public should be energy efficient, turning off unused appliances and lights where they can, the government was not making a formal request. Figures from energy regulator show there were 17,657 blackouts affecting 3.5mn people in 2013-14, compared with 1,600 cuts affecting 180,900 in 2010-11.