Britain turns to coal as low wind output increases power prices

Bloomberg

UK power prices rose after a coal power plant switched on Monday to make up for a shortfall in wind generation and limited flows on two power cables to Ireland.
Britain is set to end the use of coal within three years and to make power generation fossil fuel-free by 2035. For now the nation is still reliant on coal when the wind drops or demand increases and this winter is set to be even tighter than grid operator National Grid Plc expected.
High gas prices are making coal generation more profitable and capacity cuts on two interconnectors to Ireland are limiting one source of potential imports. The Irish network operator has cited “system security reasons” for restrictions.
“We’re already seeing in times of tightness in interconnected countries that imports to the UK are constrained,” Adam Lewis partner at Hartree Solutions said.
“This differs from National Grid’s Winter outlook assumptions that the UK will always be able to incentivise imports.”
The baseload power price for Tuesday rose 16% to 253.67 pounds (298.96 euros) per megawatt-hours on N2EX-exchange. The UK has not seen a daily power price below 100 pounds per megawatt-hour since the middle of August. Intraday prices were 248.10 pounds for the 30-minute period to 9 am on Epex Spot.
The nation doesn’t use coal all the time but it is needed when markets are tight. National Grid asked Uniper to switch on a unit at its Ratcliffe coal-fired power plant to help make up the shortfall in wind. The UK has burned 2 terawatt-hours of coal this year, about 2% of total power generation, according to data from Fraunhofer ISE.
UK wind output dropped as low as 4,416 megawatt, down from high of 13,396 megawatt reached, according to National Grid data. The forecast looks set to decline to Wednesday.