Britain's energy watchdog promises anonymity to whistleblowers over near-miss electricity blackouts

Britain's energy watchdog has promised anonymity to whistleblowers in an investigation into claims of near-miss blackouts on the grid.

It is alleged senior officials at the National Energy System Operator (Neso), which controls the grid, tried to cover up the blackout risk during last month’s heatwaves.

The grid fell below safe operating limits for “multiple periods” on June 23, it is alleged.

It is also claimed the corporate affairs team at Neso “interfered in operational decisions” on June 23 in a bid to protect the organisation’s reputation.

Neso has brought in independent investigators to look into the claims.

Its inquiry will be carried out by law firm Eversheds Sutherland.

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Energy regulator Ofgem has confirmed it will “provide active regulatory oversight of the independent investigation”.

It had been reported staff wanting to contribute to the Neso inquiry would have to identify themselves to the organisation’s legal team.

This risked “blowing their anonymity”, said Claire Coutinho, the Shadow Energy Secretary, who first raised the allegations.

But Ofgem said the law firm’s findings will be presented to an independent panel.

The same panel will allow staff to speak freely.

The panel will “ensure all Neso staff who feel they have relevant information will be able to speak directly to Eversheds completely anonymously, and the investigation team will be allowed to speak to whomever they wish, anonymously”.

Ms Coutinho said: “I cautiously welcome this. The commitment to anonymity for anybody who wants to feed in is new and positive. However, they should interview all control room engineers as a minimum.”

Ofgem is also commissioning its own “post-event regulatory review to establish the operational facts”.

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This review will “cover the weather situation, system conditions and operational decisions, including compliance with all relevant security standards and lessons for the future and will determine whether further investigation or enforcement action is required."

It can order a formal investigation if the evidence requires it, it said.

An Ofgem spokesman said: “We remain very confident in Britain’s security of supply. At no point has there been any concern about meeting demand. The system has operated reliably throughout, as it is designed to do. However, Ofgem takes the recent allegations concerning the operation of the electricity system during the period of extreme heat in June and the associated whistleblowing concerns extremely seriously. We also consider it of first importance to examine and learn from any system incident to continually improve system security. It is important that these matters are examined thoroughly, objectively and transparently. Confidence in the operation of Great Britain’s electricity system depends not only on the resilience of the system itself but also on confidence that serious concerns are investigated rigorously and independently.”

Neso has said it “operated securely” during “an unprecedented period of extreme heat and tight margins across Great Britain and Europe”.

It insisted only authorised staff are involved in its operations.

“All operational decisions are taken by authorised personnel within established procedures, and it would be false to say otherwise,” it has said, adding: “Neso takes whistleblowing allegations extremely seriously and has commissioned an independent external investigation, led by Eversheds Sutherland, reporting to an independent panel. The Terms of Reference for this investigation are still being finalised and will be published on Neso's website shortly to provide transparency both for Neso staff and our external stakeholders.”

Last week, Energy Minister Michael Shanks denied Ms Coutinho’s claim the Government was “washing its hands” of the matter.

He said: “I want to make it very clear that during this period of unprecedented extreme heat, the Great British grid remained stable, no customers were impacted by tight electricity margins and Neso had a number of tools available to them to ensure our energy security. Great Britain has one of the most resilient energy systems in the world, and the Government works closely with Neso and the wider sector to ensure that this resilience is constantly maintained.”

He added: “We take this very seriously, so nobody is washing their hands of this matter at all.”

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