If the Government needed any reminder about the need to inject some speed into the debate over the need for new nuclear power stations, yesterday’s warning from British Energy should provide the necessary jolt. Unplanned outages at two of the UK’s oldest nuclear sites are the last thing that National Grid needs as it weighs up available generating capacity for the winter.

On Friday, temporary shutdowns at three coal-fired power plants across the UK, coupled with a rise in supplies to France, forced the Grid to issue its first NISM – Notice of Insufficient Margins – since early last year. The emergency call asked power companies to bring on extra capacity as the margin of available supply over potential peak demand was becoming worryingly thin.

Now in one stroke, British Energy has taken four reactors, with the potential to supply three million homes, off the market for what could be several months.

National Grid remained calm yesterday, insisting that extra capacity would come online this weekend to cope with the annual rise in demand as the clocks go back. Yet it will be hoping that the Government takes firm decisions regarding new nuclear facilities.

The UK generates 20 per cent of its capacity from nuclear energy, but nine out of Britain’s ten nuclear power stations are due to close by 2023. Hartlepool and Heysham-1 are expected to shut in 2014. At the same time a number of coal-fired power stations are reaching the end of their life and a handful will be limited to just 20,000 hours of output a year from January under a new European directive designed to tackle climate change.

Industry experts have continued to give warning that while 2023 may seem like a long time away, it takes ten years to build a new nuclear power plant, before taking into consideration extensive legal challenges and planning wrangles.

The Government closed its most recent round of consultation on new nuclear this month but may not take a decision on the way to progress until early next year, more than four years after the process began.

John Hutton, the Business Secretary, told MPs a fortnight ago that “we are aware of the importance of getting on with the matter and are determined to do that”. The industry will hope that he lives up to his words.

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