UK day-ahead power prices were lower Monday, despite spot gas prices ticking higher, on forecasts for higher wind power production amid weaker demand ahead of Christmas holidays.
At the Platts 11 am London time close Monday, the baseload power for day-ahead delivery was last heard trading at GBP32.65/MWh, 95 pence below Friday's assessment for Monday.
Tuesday's peakload counterpart fell GBP1.30 in value from Friday's close to reach GBP37.70/MWh.
The UK base day-ahead auction outturned more than GBP1 lower than the OTC price at GBP31.12/MWh, and the peakload day-ahead auction also settled below the OTC at GBP36.69/MWh on Monday, according to N2EX and APX exchanges.
UK system operator National Grid expected peak wind power generation Tuesday to remain stable at Monday's forecast, 7.2 GW, while peak power demand will likely fall more than 1 GW to 45 GW Tuesday.
Temperatures across many parts of the UK, including London and Birmingham were expected to be 4 degrees Celsius above norms Monday, and reach as high as 6C above average Tuesday, forecaster CustomWeather said.
On the supply side, gas-fired power plants generated 14.7 GW of electricity at midday Monday, accounting for nearly 38% of the UK's energy mix, the grid said.
The amount of power generated from coal plants fell below renewables power output, with wind power production reaching 5.7 GW, while coal-fired power generation stood at 4.8 GW, or 12.4%, the grid said.
Nuclear power output at 7.6 GW at midday Monday was marginally higher than levels seen at the same time Friday, the grid said.
The uptick in nuclear power generation coincided with the return of EDF Energy's 580-MW nuclear unit 1 at Heysham 1 power station at around 0230 GMT Monday after an unplanned outage, which started last Wednesday.
