Experts claim power shortages will become more common in the UK in the next 10 years as old coal-fired and nuclear generation stations are shut down and new nuclear and renewable sources of generation have yet to come on stream.

In readiness for this, the Food Chain Emergency Liaison Group, led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has discussed the issue with stakeholder groups in the food industry.

Steve Allen, md of Cavendish Engineers, said the government’s strategy of switching to gas, wind and nuclear power stations would take time to implement.

“During this gap of no power stations the only course open to EDF [Energy] or the national grid is to loadshed,” said Allen. “This means picking the largest users first and interrupting supply for, say, two to five hours and then picking someone else the next day.”

However, Allen said that energy awareness campaigns had helped to reduce electricity demand by 7% and urged firms to keep improving their energy efficiency to help prevent likely shortages.

Meanwhile, Lib Democrat energy secretary Chris Huhne has called for a significant boost to wind farm numbers at the expense of new nuclear power stations, where questions about funding are starting to emerge.

M&C Energy Group warned a power shortfall in France by 2013 could force up UK prices and said gas supplies would also be tight.