KEY Merseyside manufacturers have been hit by gas shortages as the nation struggles to cope with the current cold-snap.
Brewer Cains and the Jaguar Land Rover and Vauxhall car plants were among those who had their gas supplies stopped yesterday forcing them to switch to alternative sources of power.
The firms are on “interruptible” contracts with their suppliers.
It means they pay a lower tariff on the understanding that, at times of peak demand, they may have to cease using gas so that “firm” customers who cannot switch to alternative energy sources, and residential customers, are guaranteed supplies.
Cains joint managing director Ajmail Dusanj said: “British Gas contacted us on Monday evening and asked us not to use gas from 6am on Tuesday.
“Fortunately, our boilers can take oil, but it is a busy time for us because we are re-supplying the supermarkets after Christmas.”
Vauxhall spokesman Dennis Chick said: “Our supplier asked us to stop using gas from 6pm on Monday evening and we have been using oil. As far as we know, it is until they tell us otherwise.”
The plant uses gas in its paint shop to dry vehicles.
A JLR spokeswoman added: “We switched first thing Tuesday morning to gas/oil until further notice. Everything is normal and production continues.”
The National Grid oversees gas as well as electricity supply and said demand has soared 30% on normal seasonal demand.
It issued a gas balancing alert on Monday for only the second time since 2006, which is a way of warning customers to ease off, as well as encouraging suppliers to bring in more gas.
A British Gas spokesman said only a small number of large corporate users would have been affected.
National Grid spokesman Ross Hayman said: “This is an extremely cold spell of weather and we are keeping the situation under review.
“It’s the first week back at work and school for lots of people, so there’s a big demand as everything gets warmed up again.
“We don’t anticipate we need to do this very often, but we may need to do this again before the winter is out.”
And he dismissed fears over gas supplies: “There is plenty of gas coming into the UK and North Sea storage is still 85% full.
“It’s just the network is close to its capacity. It is designed to meet a certain capacity and we can’t get any more gas into it.”
