With National Grid warning there could be blackouts this winter, reporter Sam Lennon looks back at the last time Kent was plunged into darkness...

When power cuts struck homes in 1972 John Nurden and his pals threw parties.

They would gather at each other's houses with giant tins of beer.

This was how the KentOnline reporter, then an 18-year-old sixth former, made the best of the crisis that January and February.

He says: "We held lots of 'blackout parties'. They were most brilliant things.

"We would all turn up at a mate's house armed with party packs of Watney's pale ale (enormous big tins) and then at 7pm all the lights went off.

"We were all told when the power was going to be cut so we'd organise parties to coincide with that.

"On other nights it was just eating or reading by candlelight.

"Obviously, no TVs or record players would work but we had battery-powered radios.

"And we still had gas to cook with and coal fires to keep warm.

"It did, of course, also lead to three-day weeks, which was fine for some but meant lots of foul-smelling rubbish building up on the streets.

"And, of course, theatres and cinemas had to go 'dark'."

John was then studying A-level maths, physics and English at the then recently-opened Sheppey Comprehensive School.

Power had to be rationed because of a miners' strike at a time when coal was the main source for generating electricity.

The National Union of Mineworkers was in a bitter feud over pay with Edward Heath's Conservative government. The strikers further turned the screws by picketing power stations.

KentOnline political editor Paul Francis recalls: “As a primary school pupil still in short trousers, the political backdrop to the energy crisis in the 1970s that led to blackouts was not something I either understood or frankly took much interest in.

"What I do recall is that there was a period when there was initially little or no advance warnings of blackouts and being sent home along darkening, eerily quiet streets and candles being lit in houses.

"However, the initial sense of excitement - and the anticipation of being sent home - eventually wore off, largely I suspect because of the inability to do much other than watch the candles flickering. I can't even remember if we had torches.”

I personally remember seeing groups of miners on the TV plus Ted Heath giving speeches about the crisis - but as a seven-year-old then, the politics of it also washed over my head.

In my child's bewilderment I at first imagined the power cuts were caused by Captain Kirk and Mr Spock climbing on rooftops and cutting cables with knives.

I'd obviously been watching too much Star Trek on TV.

I remember myself and my mother, father and sister, then eight, plunged into gloom at our home in north London with only candles for light. I would use them to read my comics.

But at least we had paraffin-fuelled heaters to keep us warm and a gas cooker to make dinner.

The miners were on strike during most of January and February in 1972 and the picketing of the power stations, to restrict coal supply, was the final straw leading to rationing for homes and businesses.

The country's then Central Electricity Generating Board by February 16 warned many homes and businesses would have no electricity for six to nine hours a day.

Electricity would be switched off on a rota basis between 7am and midnight every day.

The shortage caused several factories and businesses to close. It was reported by February 16 that 1.2 million workers had been laid off.

A deal was finally made between the NUM and management at the National Coal Board and the miners returned to work on February 25, exactly 47 days after walking out.

The dispute over pay resurfaced in 1973 when the government capped rises to control inflation.

But it was the high cost of living that made miners feel they needed to earn more.

They didn't strike again but imposed a overtime ban, so drastically reducing the production of coal.

Three Kent collieries would then have contributed to coal for the country, all in the Dover district: Betteshanger, Tilmanstone and Snowdown.

The blackouts did not return for homes - but in December 1973 Heath, to save power, imposed a three-day week on businesses, forbidding them from using electricity on the other two working days.

TV stations were ordered to stop broadcasting at 10.30pm and an advertising campaign urged householders to save electricity, above all by keeping lights off in empty rooms.

After such a clash with the then-powerful NUM Heath called a general election for February 1974 with the question: "Who governs Britain?"

The voters said not him - and Harold Wilson's Labour government came into power.