Security of Supply

The public support investing in Security of Supply be it Water, Electricity or Gas as covered in Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM)’s Gas International October 2019 article “When lights go out” Page 30:

‘Overall, the recent interruptions to supply illustrate that the systems that provide our utilities are not 100 per cent guaranteed and there is a trade-off between security of supply and cost to the consumer. System operators will point out that critical infrastructure has a responsibility to maintain equipment and procedures that mitigate utility interruptions and that overall they are rare. The balance to that argument is that, in hindsight, the cause of these interruptions could have been avoided and often actions are taken following these events to prevent them from happening again. The debate on what consumers are prepared to pay for security of supply is rarely made. When the costs to prevent the disruption are estimated following the occurrence of events, most consumers would probably agree to pay this money to avoid the problems they have just endured.’