The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has appointed an independent law firm to investigate allegations that staff covered up system failures during a recent heatwave that could have led to blackouts.
Claims were made last week by a whistleblower within Neso that its control room staff were warned by senior bosses against leaving a paper trail relating to efforts to stabilise the grid during a heatwave in late June. They alleged this was to explicitly bypass Freedom of Information (FOI) audit trails, leaving no trace of what decisions were made to stabilise the power system.
The whistleblower made the claims to shadow energy minister, Claire Coutinho, who on 7 July wrote to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) calling for an investigation.
In the letter she wrote that Neso had been “deliberately altering its operational record-keeping to avoid public scrutiny under FOI law” and that these allegations should be taken seriously as “our electricity grid is becoming increasingly...