Capacity Market
The Capacity Market was introduced with a very clear and sensible objective - to ensure that Britain would always have enough firm capacity available to meet demand, even under stress conditions (particularly periods of low renewables output) by providing revenue certainty that would support [...]
The GB Capacity Market was introduced with a clear and repeatedly stated objective: to ensure security of electricity supply by bringing forward new capacity where the market would not do so on its own. In particular, it was meant to underwrite the construction of [...]
Good afternoon everyone. I’d like to say I’m delighted to speak today about the CCGT retirement risks we face, but that would be a lie, because while it’s always nice to be with Institution of Power Engineers, it’s far from a delightful topic. However, [...]
Yesterday saw a blackout near miss in what turned out to be the tightest day the GB electricity market has seen since 2011. Wind power was 2.5 GW through the evening peak, solar was (obviously) zero and there were significant interconnector outages leaving expected [...]
In its Clean Power 2030 plan, system operator, NESO, states that materially all of the existing fleet of CCGTs will be required to run approximately 5% of the time in order to meet demand on days when renewables output is low. “Around 35 GW [...]
Today the Government has announced a new consultation to promote energy security (yet to be published) as part of its ongoing Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (“REMA”). Two main elements are being highlighted – a desire for more gas-fired generation to provide a backup [...]
Along with most everyone else in the energy market I have been of the opinion that coal power stations in the UK must close by law by 1 October 2024. I have learned that this is not in fact correct. In late 2020 the [...]
As the country basks in a heatwave, National Grid ESO has published its early outlook for next winter (this is the third year it has issued an early outlook, and it has come out a month earlier than in the past two years). The [...]
Over the past few days forecasters have been warning of a cold snap, with particularly cold weather hitting the north of the UK, which began on Tuesday – as I began writing this post at lunchtime on Tuesday 7 March there had been some [...]
Last week the T-4 capacity auction for delivery in 2026-27 closed at a record price for the long-term auction of £63 /kW /year, an double the previous high in the T-4 auction, and higher than the price in the T-1 auction the previous week. [...]