The escalating war in the Middle East and Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have sparked fears that sweeping energy-saving measures could be imposed in Britain to cope with surging oil prices.
Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) advised member countries, including the UK, to consider a series of emergency measures, such as working from home and reducing highway speeds, to tackle the looming energy crisis.
As the Brent crude benchmark continues to hover around $100 a barrel, the possibility of radical measures to conserve energy appears ever more plausible.
The move would be reminiscent of a range of measures implemented in 1970s Britain by the then-Conservative government to alleviate the impact of miners’ strikes and a global oil supply crisis.
At the time, global oil trade had been disrupted in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, which began when an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria launched a string of surprise attacks against Israel.
The Arab members of the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries (Opec) enforced an oil embargo in October 1973, initially applying to the US before expanding to Western Europe and Japan. The embargo was accompanied by significant increases in the price of oil, rising from $3 per barrel before the war to over $11 by January 1974.
In Britain, the energy crisis had been exacerbated by industrial action taken by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which had over 250,000 members, as it sought to secure higher pay for miners.
The union interrupted the usual supply of coal to power stations with an overtime ban and launched miners’ strikes in 1972 and 1974.
Britain plunged into darkness
In response, then-prime minister Edward Heath’s Tory government introduced a range of emergency measures aimed at saving energy, including a three-day working week.
The move, which came into force on 1 January 1974, required businesses to only operate for three consecutive days per week. Essential services such as hospitals and supermarkets were exempt.
Meanwhile, households faced electricity blackouts and were urged by the government to reduce their energy consumption, forcing people to work with candlelight and use boiled water to wash.
To ensure households further reduced electricity consumption, the government required television channels, including ITV and the BBC, to end their broadcasts at 10.30pm.
Meanwhile, the government urged motorists to avoid driving on weekends and abide by a maximum speed limit of 50mph.
While petrol rationing books were also distributed to all motorists, the government stopped short of forcing drivers to implement the guidelines.
Could Britain run out of gas?
The war in Iran has sparked questions about Britain’s energy security after it emerged the UK only had two days’ worth of gas stored when the conflict broke out.
The Government has rejected claims that Britain’s gas supply is running low, emphasising that the UK’s supply comes from the North Sea or via pipelines from Norway.
While a circumstance in which Britain’s gas supply is depleted remains distant, authorities and industries across the UK have prepared for the event.
Each year the Network Emergency Co-ordinator (NEC), an independent body that would take over the grid in a case of an emergency, practices an emergency drill to test the procedures in place if Britain’s supply were to run low.
The first thing the NEC would do is direct industry to increase gas production and imports where possible. Meanwhile, National Gas can urge large commercial users to reduce their capacity.
If needed, the NEC would then ban the export of gas outside of the UK, and more alarmingly, could start cutting off gas to businesses.
Large industrial and commercial users, such as power plants, would have their gas supply restricted first.
Households would remain protected from cuts to their gas supply at this stage, however, they would probably experience electricity blackouts due to gas power stations having their supply cut.
Government ‘absolutely not’ planning for blackouts and rationing
Asked whether the Government is planning for blackouts or rationing, energy minister Michael Shanks told the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee: “We’re absolutely not.
“And look, that’s not from a point of us not taking very seriously the risks that there are at the moment and managing the situation carefully.
“But we are monitoring it, and all the data that we have is that because we’ve got a strong and diverse range of supplies, we’re not concerned about it.
“It doesn’t mean we don’t take it very seriously.”
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