UK prompt power prices continued to post gains Wednesday, with baseload and peakload contracts rising 6% and 8% respectively despite weak demand on tightened supply margins.
On the OTC market, base day-ahead power for Thursday delivery was trading at GBP50.25/MWh, GBP2.80 higher than Tuesday's close.
The peak power contract for Thursday changed hands at GBP55.75/MWh, nearly Eur4 above the previous day, before the Platts 11:00 am London time close.
Meanwhile, the UK's base day-ahead auction out-turn was above the OTC price once again this week at GBP54.86/MWh on the N2EX and APX exchanges Wednesday.
An unplanned outage at EDF Energy's unit 22 at its 520 MW Dungeness B nuclear power station earlier this week tightened surplus margins, boosting the prompt UK market despite bearish demand fundamentals and mild temperature forecasts.
EDF, on its REMIT transparency website, said Dungeness unit 22 would be running at reduced availability of 380 MW for planned operational activities between early October 23 and late evening November 2. Output is forecast to return to 525 MW from 21:00 November 4, EDF said.
UK's National Grid data showed that surplus margins are expected at 7.2 GW Wednesday and 7.4 GW Thursday, while peak demand forecast for Thursday was pegged at 44.2 GW, down from 45.5 GW forecast for Wednesday.
Maximum wind power output is set to remain stable to slightly lower on the day at 3.4 GW forecast for Thursday, down from peak wind generation of 3.7 GW Wednesday.
On the fuel mix, gas-fired power plants generated 16.1 GW of electricity at midday Wednesday, representing 39.5% of the total energy mix, while coal and nuclear power production remained largely stable at 13.3 GW (32.6%) and 5.1 GW (12.5%), the grid data showed.
