UK wholesale electricity prices for the day-ahead market increased dramatically as the heatwave in some areas of the country helped push up the demand for power.
The price has jumped from around £40 per megawatt hour to almost £200 per megawatt hour, the most expensive in a decade.
The increase in demand comes at a time where there is decreased output from wind power, with a number of gas and nuclear stations offline.
The day-ahead market is the price charged by generators to put power into the network grid. Suppliers buy a percentage of their power on the day ahead market which in turn is available to flexible end user purchasers if they operate in this way. Electricity prices on the forward curve were far less influenced by the spike.
On occasions where the UK market is tight we can usually draw capacity between our connections with France; however there are issues with this currently.
It is worth noting the day ahead price actually exceeded the £92.50 per MWh subsidy deal proposed for Hinckley Point.