‘Frozen’ gas supplies reinstated
GAS supplies to large factories across the north west which were cut last week when temperatures plummeted have all been reinstated.
National Grid, which operates Britain’s gas network, severed the supply to 39 businesses on ‘interruptible contracts’ across the region last Tuesday.
Customers on these contracts pay lower gas rates on the proviso that their supply may occasionally be turned off in order to divert it for domestic use.
Vauxhall’s car manufacturing plant at Ellesmere port and Cains’ Brewery, in Liverpool, were among the businesses which had to operate using their oil supplies for the duration of the gas cut.
The number of factories in the region without a gas supply had been reduced to 15 by Friday.
A spokesman for the National Grid confirmed that gas supplies to all factories in the north west were reinstated on Saturday.
He said: “In 2003, there was an incident on a smaller scale when the gas supply was turned off to factories on interruptible contracts.
“But the last time the supply was turned off on a similar scale to what has just occurred was in 1999.
“The decision was taken in order to ensure that gas supplies to people’s homes could continue uninterrupted.”
The gas cuts hit factories in the East Midlands worst – 55 businesses were without power when the freezing weather began. The only other region to be affected was East Anglia where one factory had its gas supply turned off last Tuesday.
