Warning energy bills could jump by £200 under plans to build gas-fired power stations

Rishi Sunak said the plants were needed to ensure the UK met its goals to cut emissions by nearly four-fifths by 2035

Britons will pay an extra £200 in energy bills to foot the cost of gas power stations (PA Wire)

Millions of households face paying hundreds of more pounds in energy bills under plans to build gas-fired power stations across Britain, according to experts.

Aurora Energy Research said Britons would pay almost £200 extra in bills over a decade to foot the cost of building the power stations.

It comes after Rishi Sunak said the plants were needed to ensure the UK met its goals to cut emissions by nearly four-fifths by 2035 in a way that doesn’t “leave people without energy on a cloudy, windless day”.

“What consumers are being asked to buy is energy security,” Aurora Energy’s Tom Smout told the Daily Telegraph. “The priority is to keep the lights on by having backup for the intermittency of renewables.

“An extra 5Gw of new backup generating capacity is needed to keep the lights on. Each gigawatt of capacity will cost about £1bn.”

Claire Countinho announced the policy on Tuesday and claimed the UK would face blackouts without gas backing up renewable energy shortages (Getty Images)

Energy secretary Claire Countinho said on Tuesday: “A weather-dependent, renewables-based electricity grid means we will need to have flexible power for when the wind doesn’t blow, and the sun doesn’t shine. Without gas backing up renewables, we face the genuine prospect of blackouts.”

Britain has about 32 gas-fired power stations with the capacity to generate about 27 gigawatts (Gw), enough to power around 20 million homes.

But uncertainty over energy policy during the past two decades means few new ones have been built, leaving Britain with a fleet of aging gas plants.

More than half face closure within the next few years, slashing generating capacity by 15Gw and leaving just 12Gw of existing plants available to the National Grid.

Another 9Gw of new capacity is already expected, which would take the total to 21Gw. This falls short of the 22 to 28Gw of gas-fired plants that the Government estimates will be needed in 2035 to keep the lights on.

A gas fired power plant (Alamy/PA)

Shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “Today, the Energy Secretary has confirmed that, after 14 years of failed Conservative energy policy, under the Tories Britain would face at least another 10 years of high energy bills and energy insecurity because of their plans.

“Of course, we need to replace retiring gas-fired stations as part of a decarbonised power system, which will include carbon capture and hydrogen playing a limited back-up role in the system.

“But the reason the Tories cannot deliver the lower bills and energy security we need is that they are specialists in failure when it comes to our clean energy future: persisting with the ludicrous ban on onshore wind, bungling the offshore wind auctions, and failing on energy efficiency.”