We are pleased to present Aurora’s GB renewables market summary report.
Highlights from January include:
- Average monthly wholesale electricity prices reached a new record since 2010, rising to a high of £71.2 /MWh, an increase of £17.1 (or 32%), relative to December. The surge in prices was accompanied by an increase in transmission demand and gas prices by 4% and 29% respectively.
- The combination of significant cold weather and low wind generation led National Grid ESO to issue several Electricity Market Notices in January. These periods led to notable spikes in market prices, with several instances where the system price breached £1,000 /MWh to reach a high of £4,000 /MWh.
- The number of settlement periods with negative prices dropped to zero in both the intraday and day ahead market. This reduction was from 12 negative half hours in the intraday market and 4 negative hours in the day ahead market in December. It was the first time that both markets experienced zero negative settlement periods since September 2020.
- Relative to December, average monthly load factors for onshore wind and offshore wind decreased by 6 p.p. and 4 p.p. respectively, to 26% and 48%. Even though load factors decreased for both technologies, their average monthly capture prices experienced a rise. Average onshore wind monthly capture prices increased to £63.7 /MWh – a £15.5 /MWh or 32% rise since December, while offshore wind capture prices saw a similar relative increase to £63.3 /MWh – a £14.9 /MWh or 31% growth.
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