New regulatory changes approved earlier this month allow the National Energy System Operator to initiate rolling blackouts across designated areas with minimal advance warning as a final safeguard against total electricity system failure.
Under the modified grid code rules, the system operator can disconnect sufficient homes and businesses to reduce electricity use by more than one-fifth in affected regions, with blackouts lasting up to three hours and rotating across the country. The measure requires only eight hours’ notice and represents the first instance where large-scale power cuts can be deployed without invoking formal government emergency powers. Officials at Neso characterized the protocol as a last-resort contingency measure reserved for the most extreme circumstances after exhausting all other available options to stabilize the grid.
The changes address a critical gap between the system operator’s existing limited powers, unused since the 1970s, and the government’s broader emergency electricity code, which has never been enacted. The new framework provides a tool suited for short-notice response to brief supply squeezes, such as those occurring during particularly cold winter evenings, rather than prolonged outages. The government’s emergency code, activated only by the energy secretary, would trigger blackouts affecting 90 percent of electricity users but is considered too cumbersome for rapid deployment.
Certain facilities including hospitals, water treatment facilities, and sites of national security importance would be exempt from planned disconnections. The decision to approve these modifications follows recent allegations from control room whistleblowers at Neso who claimed senior leadership attempted to conceal blackout risks during extreme weather events. The protocol joins other demand-reduction measures available to the system operator, including disconnecting large industrial consumers and reducing regional power grid voltage to lower overall consumption.
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