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National Grid open to ceding role as UK electricity system manager

National Grid PLC is open to giving up its role balancing Britain's electricity system after coming under fire for its handling of a widespread power outage in August, according to the Financial Times.

Chief executive John Pettigrew told the newspaper that his company would consider relinquishing the function to an independent body if policymakers decided it was the "right thing to do," according to a report published Oct. 6.

National Grid owns and operates the electricity and gas transmission network in most of the U.K. but has also been responsible for balancing supply and demand on the power network since the company was privatized in 1990.

That part of the business was reorganized into a legally separate company, National Grid ESO, on April 1 of this year and now operates alongside the electricity transmission business within the wider National Grid group.

But the company has come under pressure since a lightning strike triggered power outages for more than a million customers in early August, with the U.K. energy minister suggesting last month that the system manager role should be split off entirely. Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party is planning to take the company back into public ownership if it comes into power.

Pettigrew said he would likely sit down with the government and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, Britain's energy regulator, next year to evaluate how the country's electricity system is run.

"The world is continuously changing so we're looking at it again," Pettigrew was quoted as saying. He added that the company's board would "absolutely consider" moving the business to an independent operator, in part because "it's not a big part financially of the group."

In addition to its network operations in the U.K., National Grid also runs interconnectors from Britain to the rest of Europe and has a large regulated business in the northeastern U.S., as well as a commercial arm that invests in renewables and other ventures.