UK system price spikes to over GBP2,240/MWh as capacity tightens

The UK's system power price spiked to GBP2,242/MWh ($2,892/MWh) Wednesday evening for settlement period 37 (18:00-18:30) as demand reached 45.649 GW, the highest peak demand of the winter so far, Elexon data showed.

The price remained extremely high for the next half-hour period (GBP1,708/MWh) before sinking back to more normal levels at 19:00 (GBP23/MWh).

Market imbalance had spiked from 4 MW to 470 MW in the period just before the system price spike.

The sinking capacity margin pushed up the Loss of Load Probability, which repriced Short Term Operating Reserve-contracted Peterborough CCGT and some non-balancing mechanism STOR "to very high prices," energy consultancy EnAppSys said.

Generation through the day showed wind at a low ebb, sinking to 1.4 GW in the evening. Some 3.5 GW of coal capacity was on the system through the evening peak, while gas-fired CCGT capacity topped 25 GW.

Pumped storage was busy through the peak too, rising to 1.8 GW, while 4 GW of interconnection to France, the Netherlands and Belgium were all pulling maximum power into the UK market.