Proactive Investors - National Grid PLC paid some of the highest prices this winter for gas-generated power on Tuesday night as it scrambled to keep the lights on as a cold snap hit the UK.
The Guardian reported data from the electricity system’s administrator, Elexon, showed the Coryton power station in Essex had bids accepted to produce power at £1,950 per megawatt hour on Tuesday evening.
The sums are well above average prices of between £200 and £400 per megawatt hour, although they remain below those paid on 12 December, when National Grid paid £27mln in a single day to get power stations to crank up supply. In December, Rye House power station in Hertfordshire received a record £6,000 a MWh.
In total, the cost of balancing the system on Tuesday this week was estimated at between £5mln and £10mln, the report said.
The cold, still weather reduced wind power and pushed up demand this week, while strikes at EDF’s nuclear plants in France also put a strain on the grid.
To counter this, National Grid called on coal plants that were put on standby for the winter into action for the first time, as well as sourcing power from Dinorwig, a vast, pumped hydroelectric power plant in north Wales nicknamed “Electric Mountain”, which is the fastest source of electricity in the UK.
The next highest accepted offers after Coryton were Uniper’s Connah’s Quay power station in north Wales – which received £999 per MWh and Rocksavage Power Station in near Liverpool, also owned by InterGen, which received £750 per MWh.