UK prompt power contracts surged Friday, with the baseload day-ahead contract reaching the highest level since mid-March on bullish NBP gas prices.
Also, forecasts for sharply declining wind generation and the shutdown of a nuclear plant for maintenance tightened supply further, supporting prices, traders said.
On the OTC market, the base day-ahead power for Monday delivery rose 11% on the day to trade at GBP46.40/MWh before the Platts 11 am close on Friday, the strongest value since March 11 when the prompt contract was assessed at GBP47.50/MWh, Platts data showed.
The peak day-ahead contract was last heard trading 12% higher at GBP49.40/MWh, slightly below the month high of GBP49.65/MWh assessed on September 1, according to Platts data.
Prices are seeing "a bit of a jump on gas and additional outages increasing near term", one trader said.
On the supply side, EDF Energy said unit 21 at its Dungeness B power station came offline Thursday, and the ongoing shutdown for maintenance was expected to end October 2.
No power generation was expected until October 1, before being ramped up to 343 MW by October 4, EDF said on its REMIT website.
Furthermore, National Grid expected wind power generation to drop to 1.9 GW Saturday, down from peak wind output expectations of 5 GW on Friday.
At around midday Friday, wind accounted for 11.2% of the total UK generation mix at 4.1 GW, while power from coal-fired power plants was stable day on day at 12.1 GW.
Gas-fired power plants contributed 11.1 GW of power to the grid, representing 30.2% of the energy mix, while biomass and French imports stood at 1.1 GW (3%) and 1.5 GW (4.1%), respectively, at midday.
On the NBP gas hub, spot contracts rose, with the same-day and next-day contracts up 0.85 pence/therm and 0.35 p/th, respectively, at 50.60 p/th and 50.50 p/th at 11 am London time.
