The UK’s wholesale power prices will drop below zero for 12 hours on Saturday — the second-longest such stint on record — as strong renewable generation means supply will outstrip demand.
Day-ahead prices dropped to £6.26 per megawatt-hour, the lowest since December. The hourly rate from 1pm slumped as low as -19.19. Daily generation from solar and wind is forecast to jump to the highest since January, according to Bloomberg models.
© Supplied by BloombergWind production is especially unpredictable in the UK and operators sometimes pay wind farms to ramp down to protect the grid. Creating more storage capacity would allow excess power to be used when wind levels drop, reducing dependence on gas.
This issue is not confined to the UK alone. Power prices have plunged in France and Spain too. This puts even more pressure on the European grid and hampers effective transport of excess power across to nations in deficit.
French day-ahead prices also turned negative, falling to €-7.1, the lowest since July last year. Spain was just above zero.
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