For the first time this winter in Britain, the electric utility National Grid requested that coal-fired plants go on standby on Tuesday to be ready to generate power, as a late season cold-snap stretched generation capacity to its limits across the country.

After turning to Electricite de France for support on Monday, on Tuesday, the energy grid operator turned to its coal-fired plants to help increase capacity, preparing three more units to be ready to begin generation.

Although coal fired units have been prepared for operation several times in the course of this winter, this is the first time the grid operator has actually needed them.

Adam Bell, the head of policy at consultancy firm Stonehaven said in an interview with Bloomberg, “Although it’s never positive to use coal, it’s better than having the lights go out. Right now, in the middle of an energy crisis, it’s a sensible thing to do.”

Between the high demand due to the severe winter cold, low wind conditions that were seen Tuesday, as well as a shortage of imported electricity due to strikes going on in France by power station workers, Britain found itself facing almost a perfect storm of an energy crisis.

In addition, wind generation has been in a slump during the cold snap, contributing just 13% of the nation’s power. Meanwhile, the UK’s Meteorological Office has issued warnings over a combination of sub-zero temperatures, and snow and ice leading to disruptions in transportation.