The National Energy System Operator (Neso) is expected to pay about £10m on Wednesday to secure enough electricity to meet demand as households turn on air conditioners and electric fans, according to industry data. The system operator will pay more than four times the usual daily average to secure enough supplies to balance the power system after it issued a notice late on Tuesday asking generators to provide any extra electricity to help meet rising demand due to the impact of the heatwave.
Neso – which manages the energy systems in England, Scotland and Wales – warned on Tuesday evening it would need an extra 1,900MW of power to avoid falling short of the electricity required to power homes and businesses within its normal safety margins on Wednesday evening. The notice in effect called on Britain’s electricity generators to provide any extra power they could from their plants. It is more common for Neso to issue such notices during particularly cold spells in winter, when there is more demand for heating. But demand for electricity is expected to climb between 7pm and 10pm on Wednesday as people turn on electric fans and air conditioning units to try to keep cool.
“Neso pays £10m to fire up gas plants and import electricity to avoid rare summer power crunch as heatwave drives up demand.”
The warning was cancelled on Wednesday afternoon after the operator agreed to pay about £1,400 a megawatt-hour, nearly 20 times the average electricity market price in June last year, to secure about 1.7 gigawatts of imported electricity from the continent. A Neso spokesperson said: “This is due to the impact of extremely high temperatures affecting Great Britain and the continent, and low wind.” The government-owned body added that the electricity supply was not at risk and that the decision to issue a margin notice did not mean a blackout was imminent.
Electricity prices have risen sharply across European markets in recent days as the heatwave has gripped much of the continent, pushing demand higher and causing a string of power plant outages.