The government must come to an agreement with energy providers or ‘massive cut offs’ will loom this winter, national grid group Netbeheer has warned.

Netbeheer is legally obliged to cut off people who don’t pay their energy bills following a request from an energy firm.

A stress test by the Economic Policy Analysis bureau CPB carried out earlier this summer has shown that between 670,000 and 1.2 million households may be in arrears this winter because of inflation and mounting energy costs.

Netbeheer policy director Hans-Peter Oskam told MPs on Thurday ‘the biggest disaster scenario is not the network capacitiy in 2030: it’s what may happen this winter. It’s the disaster scenario of having to cut off milllions of vulnerable housholds.’

SP MPs Lilian Marijnissen and Renske Leijten have asked energy minister Rob Jetten to make sure no one is cut off this winter. However, no provision is understood to have been included in the upcoming budget to compensate spiralling energy costs this year.

A meeting of MPs with providers Eneco, Vattenfall and Gaslicht.com has been planned for next Wednesday.