Centrica boss warns the UK’s shift to green energy ‘is not going to be cheap’

THE boss of Centrica warns the UK’s shift to green energy “is not going to be cheap”.

Chris O’Shea said bills are high due to too much volatility in the energy market — and that will only worsen if we rely on wind or solar power alone.

Mr O’Shea revealed he had been worried about energy security two years ago and that “if we wait until something goes wrong it would be too late”.

The FTSE 100 giant reopened Rough, its North Sea gas storage facility 18 miles off the Humber, during the height of the crisis two years ago.

It sits above a 30km sandstone rock. Three kilometres down, Centrica sucks up thousands of cubic metres of gas.

Rough has been ramped up to store enough gas for three million homes this winter. The facility currently provides half of the UK’s entire energy reserves and Mr O’Shea says this means it is a “critical part of the UK’s energy security”.

Analysts FTI found that if Rough had been open during the worst of the energy crisis it could have saved £5.6billion, or £200 for every household.

Mr O’Shea added: “We want energy to be as cheap as possible. The energy transition is not going to be cheap. It’s in our interests to have customers able to afford our product.”

Labour’s new publicly owned energy company, Great British Energy, has focused on lifting bans on onshore wind farms.

Mr O’Shea warned: “You can’t guarantee wind power but you can store hydrogen. You can turn electricity from wind power into hydrogen and store it.”

Centrica wants to convert Rough from natural gas to storing hydrogen. It has called for the same contracts that energy connectors between France and the UK have.

Mr O’Shea claimed that by offering hydrogen storage, a viable market would follow.

He said Great British Energy could be a “co-investor” with Centrica on Rough, but that Government cash would not be needed to convert to hydrogen.

He added: “We’ll invest £2billion, we’ll create a few thousand jobs for construction, and we’ll improve the UK’s energy security.

“And we will reduce bills. For me, the question is, ‘What’s not to like?’ With wind farms you can’t guarantee it will reduce bills.”

Bills aid call

THE Government needs to bring in a social energy tariff to help those who cannot afford their bills, Mr O’Shea says.

Regulator OFGEM’s new price cap will increase the average energy bill by £150 to £1,700 a year in October, just as the weather gets colder.

The hike comes soon after Chancellor Rachel Reeves scrapped winter fuel payments for around ten million pensioners.

Mr O’Shea said he believed the best way to help would be to scrap standing charges, which cost customers even if they use no power, and introduce social tariffs.

The Centrica CEO added: “We think there should be a fairer energy system, but we’re not in charge of policy.“

JD’s a kit shocked at sales

The Euros gave a boost to JD Sports — although it was surprised to find that England away shirts sold equally well to the home strip.

It comes after Nike changed the colours of the St George’s Cross on the kit’s collar, bringing criticism from figures including Sir Keir Starmer.

JD Sports CEO Regis Schultz yesterday called the away kit sales “unusual”, adding that England shirts sold better than other teams’.

But JD’s sales in the UK fell by 3 per cent in the first half of the year, despite growing around the rest of the world.

Mr Schultz put the dip down to bad weather, and said the UK was a more “mature” market for JD amid a global expansion spree. It now boasts 4,506 shops worldwide.

Shares jumped by 10 per cent yesterday, with investors encouraged by JD’s 2.4 per cent group sales growth in the second quarter