London — UK day-ahead prices rose steeply hitting more than three-month highs amid lower solar-wind output and higher demand, while the neighbouring Netherlands and Belgium spot markets remained bullish amid ongoing coal-fired power station maintenance delays, market sources said Tuesday.
* Netherlands, Belgium remain strong
* Wind at 2.7 GW, solar at 6 GW during peak times
At 11:00 am London time, the day-ahead base was up GBP4.35/MWh to GBP58.45/MWh (Eur66.18/MWh) -- this was the highest since March 16 when the same contract was at GBP63.50/MWh.
Likewise, the peakload counterpart was at GBP 63.75/MWh (Eur72.18/MWh), up GBP6.20/MWh, and the highest since March 16 when day-ahead peak was at GBP72/MWh.
The Epex and N2EX settled day-ahead base and peak at GBP59.25/MWh (Eur67.07/MWh) and GBP65.84/MWh (Eur74.52/MWh).
A UK power trader said: "It's quite tight tomorrow... lower renewables... strong Dutch and tight Belgium [with] some ongoing delayed coal maintenance."
In the Netherlands spot markets, day-ahead base was at Eur60.88/MWh, and peakload counterpart was at Eur69.47/MWh, data from Epex spot auction shows.
The Belgium day-ahead base and peak were at Eur59.64/MWh and Eur66.22/MWh, according to Epex.
The National Grid forecast for demand during peak times was at 34 GW for Wednesday, up from 33 GW on Tuesday.
Wind generation forecast fell to 2.7 GW for Wednesday, down from 4.3 GW during peak times for Tuesday, data from the Grid shows. Solar power generation was set to fall to 6 GW on Wednesday, compared with Tuesday's 8 GW.
The Met Office forecast temperatures in London were projected to remain within a high/low range of 24/17 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, steady day on day.
At 10:00 to 10:30 am London time, gas-fired generation stood at 16.3 GW, or 55.1 % of the total generation mix, coal-fired output was at zero, nuclear output stood at 7.3 GW, wind in-feed was at 2.3 GW and biomass was at 1.1 GW, data from Grid showed. Solar power output was at 6.22 GW at 9:30 am London time, according to the Sheffield University and Grid.
The 2 GW French-UK (IFA) interconnector was seen importing 1.4 GW to the UK, and the 1 GW Britain-Netherlands (BritNed) was importing 730 MW to the UK.
