Sustainability challenge: A postman pushes his bicycle up an icy road in Hampshire. A sharp drop in wind generation just as colder weather causes an increase in demand for heating is putting pressure on the British power system. — AFP
LONDON: Power prices surged after the United Kingdom’s grid operator issued a market warning for yesterday afternoon as declining wind output crimps supply just as plunging temperatures boost demand.
The three-hour notice period began at 4pm London time when there was an insufficient buffer between predicted supply and demand, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) said.
The notice was cancelled at 4.19pm and the system was operating normally, according to a Neso spokesperson.
Intraday power prices rose as high as US$2,196.7 per megawatt-hour at 5.30pm London time on Wednesday, according to Epex Spot SE data.
The warning was made by the grid operator “using operational and engineering judgments” and gives the market more time to adjust than an automatic alert four hours in advance.
It’s one of several issued this winter and highlights the risk of building out wind turbines without sufficient back up for days when it’s dark, cold and windless.
A tight market has been an opportunity for some power plants to profit from high prices offered by the grid operator to ensure there’s enough generation when margins are particularly tight.
Late last year, a pair of gas-fired power stations each earned over £1mil in a handful of hours when the wind was barely blowing.
The British regulator Ofgem brought in new rules to prevent operators from changing generation plans within the same day, so they now have to make a bet a day ahead that doesn’t always pay off.
“Neso’s options are relatively limited,” said LCP Delta senior consultant Shiv Malhotra.
“The majority of the United Kingdom’s power plants are already running at full capacity.”
A sharp drop in wind generation just as colder weather causes an increase in demand for heating is putting pressure on the power system.
Wind output had dipped even lower than expected yesterday afternoon, falling below three gigawatts (GW).
Gas is picking up the slack, with the country’s plants generating about 25GW of power, short of the record of nearly 28GW set in December.
Average temperatures were forecast to be just above freezing Wednesday.
This was well below the 30-year normal for this time of the year.
Britain is connected to markets like France, the Netherlands and Norway by huge power cables that transport electricity.
Scheduled interconnector flows from France to the United Kingdom have increased, according to grid data.
Moreover, a link between the United Kingdom and Denmark was also brought back from maintenance one day ahead of schedule Wednesday afternoon to help meet peak power demand amid the crunch.
France is ramping up its nuclear fleet to meet rising demand.
Output in the country reached the highest level since February 2019.
It rose above 54GW for the first time in almost five years, according to grid operator data.
The United Kingdom’s Met Office had warnings in place for snow and ice across the country on Wednesday and expects to issue more alerts for later in the week.
Temperatures could fall to the lowest this winter, reaching -15 degrees celcius in locations with lying snow in Scotland or northern England last night, according to Chris Almond, deputy chief forecaster at the Met Office.
The cold snap is taking hold across Europe.
German power demand hit an 11-month high on Wednesday morning, exceeding 73GW.
That was about 10% higher than the forecast.
To meet the extra load, Germany is switching to more dirty coal and oil. Hard coal generation is the highest since November, according to European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity. — Bloomberg
