The BBC has prepared for a Britain without internet

The BBC has drawn up a secret emergency plan for the eventuality that a nationwide power outage could paralyse Britain for days. The plan was revealed on Saturday by the public broadcaster's media and culture correspondent, David Sillito, according to whom around a hundred staff members would work in a radio studio that maintains contact with the outside world via secure lines independent of the internet.

The studio stores enough fuel, water and food for at least three days, so it could operate without outside resupply. In this studio, pre-agreed government announcements and practical advice would be read out, and the full plan is known only to a small circle of people. Experts call such a situation a “Black Sky” event: a widespread, long-lasting power outage that simultaneously knocks out several vital services.

The broadcast would go out on VHF, on FM transmitters, because according to the BBC this technology works almost everywhere, even during a power cut or a cyberattack. The transmitter masts would run on diesel generators. Their tanks have a capacity of between 5,000 and 40,000 litres, enough for roughly three days. Reporters would report from emergency centres set up across the country using satellite broadcast vans, would stay in contact with one another via satellite phone, and if that too failed, would gather at pre-arranged meeting points. The public would only be able to listen to the broadcast on battery-powered, hand-cranked or car radios, which is why the government's “Be Ready” campaign advises households to keep enough water, food and basic equipment at home for at least three days. According to the campaign, extreme weather and cyberattacks can also paralyse vital services, although there is currently no specific threat to the electricity grid.

At a recent British crisis-management summit, experts debated whether the country could withstand such a situation for at least 72 hours. Lord Harris, chairman of the National Preparedness Commission, warned the BBC that a nationwide power outage would also cut off the water supply, since pumps cannot operate without electricity and the sewage system would clog up without water. Shops, petrol stations, cash machines and traffic lights would also stop working, while rail transport and the mobile network would grind to a halt. Among civil-protection experts, it is often said that society is only nine meals away from anarchy. According to the latest estimate from NESO, the operator of the British grid, power could be restored within two to three days after a nationwide blackout. The BBC had previously planned for an outage of five to seven days.

The planners drew on the experience of Lancaster. On the evening of 5 December 2015, flooding on the River Lune left 61,500 people in the city without power. Roger Kemp, a professor of electrical systems at Lancaster University, later wrote a report on the incident in which he found that during the crisis, the old copper-wire landline telephone and VHF radio were the only things that worked. The most reliable source of information turned out to be a local commercial radio station, which broadcast from an emergency generator over a landline telephone connection — in other words, using technology more than half a century old. According to Kemp, things have since gone backwards, since the copper-wire telephone network will be permanently switched off on 31 January 2027, which in his view shows that no one has thought through how the country would communicate without electricity.

The government is also experimenting with new solutions. The government research agency ARIA is investing £70 million in the development of high-altitude unmanned aircraft (so-called HAPS) that could provide mobile and internet connectivity over the country for at least a week in a crisis. According to the programme's director, Rico Chandra, if ground-based networks collapse, satellites too can only partially replace them. However, these systems are still under development. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office stresses that the British electricity system is “one of the most resilient in the world”, and that the national grid has never completely collapsed in its 75-year history.

Preparations were given new urgency by the April 2025 Iberian blackout, which paralysed Spain, Portugal and the south-western part of France. The British government had already been working on this issue before: according to the Guardian, government officials tested, in a simulation exercise called Programme Yarrow, how they would handle a nationwide power outage lasting up to seven days. Under the scenario, energy would be rationed, the elderly and children would be given priority, and the BBC would broadcast only Radio 2 and Radio 4 on generators. The British plans are being drawn up in a context in which Europe's critical infrastructure is coming under attack ever more frequently — in recent weeks, for instance, hackers broke into the cooling systems of the French blood transfusion service, and supermarket refrigeration systems have been attacked in several countries. The BBC's plan thus also signals that in a digital crisis, it may ultimately be the oldest technology — the generator-powered VHF transmitter — that remains the last reliable channel between the government and the public.

Ugar