U.K. Power Spikes Above £1,000 With Extreme Wind Lull

(Bloomberg) --

Power prices for Monday evening surged to the highest in a month as supply is set to drop with declining wind generation.

The contract for 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. London time jumped to 1,161 pounds ($1,589) a megawatt-hour, the highest since Dec. 16 on the N2EX exchange. At the same time, wind output is forecast to slide below 1.5 gigawatts, compared with a 10-day average of 6.3 gigawatts.

The soaring prices show the increasing pressure the U.K. power market is under as its aging fleet of nuclear reactors shuts and aren’t immediately replaced. The latest shutdown was Electricite de France SA’s Hunterston B plant on Jan. 7.

Gas was meeting 39% of demand, wind 26% and coal 4% on Monday morning, according to National Grid Plc data. Wind is forecast to increase from Tuesday, peaking above 15 gigawatts on Wednesday, Bloomberg’s model shows.

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