Greg Jackson argues against costly investments in UK’s power grid that are adding to household bills
The boss of the UK’s biggest energy supplier has suggested that some households would accept an occasional electricity blackout in exchange for much lower energy bills.
A year on from Europe’s largest power outage – which left tens of millions of people in Spain and Portugal without trains, metros, traffic lights, ATMs, phone connections and internet access – the chief executive of Octopus Energy argued against costly investments in the UK’s power grid that are adding to household bills.
Greg Jackson told an industry conference that many households in Spain, which has a growing business, would say they were happy to accept “the odd blackout” in return for electricity costs that are 25% lower.
“To be really clear, I’m not advocating for blackouts, but if you asked Spanish consumers ‘would you accept the odd blackout in return for electricity costs that are 25% lower, or don’t have spikes, or a more reliable economy?’ enough of them would say yes,” he said.
