The UK may have to follow Germany's lead in switching off street lighting and heating in public buildings — thanks to its embargo on energy imports from Russia.
That is according to British energy industry consultants and fuel poverty charities, amid expectations that energy regulator Ofgem will raise the cap on annual household gas and electricity bills by 42 per cent — or £820.
German cities have turned off illumination for public monuments, along with central heating and hot water in public buildings as European Union sanctions on Russia over its de-Nazification operation in Ukraine have backfired, prompting the second a continent-wide energy crisis in less than 12 months.
Robert Buckley, head of relationship development at energy analysts Cornwall Insight, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Friday morning that "at the margin it might make a difference".
"We're in danger of running into this kind of thing involuntarily, because there is also a cost of business during a crisis here, because of these energy cost increases," he said.
"We will go into a period where energy prices for business may be five, six, seven times where they've been historically — and what you'll end up there is that businesses can't afford to run and actually businesses might themselves decide not to heat swimming pools or whatever," Buckley added. "So I think that the fact that the Germans are having this discussion is constructive for them and it's a conversation that actually we should be having more of over here."
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insisted the government's offer of £400 to every household to help with energy bills would help keep the wolf from the door this winter.
"People across the country are understandably worried about the global rise in energy costs, and the pressure this is placing on everyday bills," Kwarteng said. "While no government can control global gas prices, we have a responsibility to step in where we can and this significant £400 discount on energy bills we're providing will go some way to help millions of families over the colder months".
But Maureen Fildes, a project co-ordinator at fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA), told the same programme that many poorer households with pre-payment and credit meters were fearful of soaring prices despite the government's pledge.
"There is a lot of fear about how people are going to survive the winter," Fildes said, adding that the planned £400 payed in monthly instalments of vouchers was not enough. "I don't think that is going to be sufficient to help people cope with the cost of living this winter," she said.
Former Labour Don Valley MP Caroline Flint, now chairwoman of the BEIS Committee on Fuel Poverty, warned that with prices were set to more than double come autumn many poorer consumers would try to save by not heating their homes — and risking hypothermia.
"I think every step possible has to be made to prevent people turning off their heating," Flint told Today.
While it was "very rare these days that people would be cut off, if at all, by energy suppliers," she stressed that "One of the worries of our committee is that those people with anxiety about their bills, those people who are not going to be able to afford it despite the support they are getting, will actively just not turn on their heating."