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GB renewables market summary – May 2020

Wind turbines - Aurora Energy Research

We are pleased to present our latest GB renewables market summary report.

Highlights from May include:

  • As a result of continued low demand due to COVID-19 and low fuel prices, the average baseload power price dropped to £21.92/MWh, which is almost 5% lower than in April and the lowest it has been over the last 10 years
  • Low demand resulted in May having 80 settlement periods with negative intraday prices, which is an increase of more than 20% since April. Additionally, there were two days in May that encountered prolonged negative prices in the day ahead market, with 11 and 17 consecutive hours of negative prices
  • GB experienced a full calendar month without electricity generation from coal due to low demand and high renewables penetration, which led to a drop in emissions by almost 16%, relative to April
  • Solar PV capture prices increased by 3% despite the decline in baseload prices. Solar PV’s discount to baseload decreased to 8%, which is almost half April’s value

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