He said: “I think it’s a challenging situation. But as I’ve always said, the energy supply is not an issue, we’ve got a security of supply.
“We’ve got flowing sources of gas and electricity, we’ve got a diversity in terms of electricity generation mix, we’ve got a bit of nuclear, we’ve got renewables. We’ve got gas, and through that mix, I think we’ve got a great deal of resilience.”
Mr Kwarteng said he is certain that the lights will stay on in the UK this winter as businesses warned they may have to reduce working hours to sustain themselves and the Energy UK industry body warned that more suppliers will collapse.
‘I will not bail out failing energy suppliers’
He also guaranteed he will keep the energy price cap for consumers in place throughout the winter but said he will not “bail out failing energy suppliers”.
Mr Kwarteng said he could not yet determine whether there a price cap will be introduced for businesses but added that there have been discussions over “what the nature of that support might be”.
He told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “What I’m very clear about is we need to help them get through this situation – it’s a difficult situation, gas prices, electricity prices are at very high levels right across the world and of course I’m speaking to government colleagues, particularly in the Treasury to try and see a way through this.”