Economics
U.K. Grid Pays Up as Idled Plants Return for Winter Crunch
- SSE's Keadby is first plant out of deep mothballing since 2005
- National Grid pays 60 times going rate for power on Wednesday
The National Grid control centre in Wokingham, U.K.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
U.K. network manager National Grid Plc on Wednesday paid more than 60 times the market rate to fire up a plant at the last minute. The lack of generating capacity as old coal units retire will see SSE Plc dust off two idle gas units to help beat a looming capacity crunch this winter.
The need for more flexible capacity was brought to the fore on Wednesday when National Grid for the first time in more than three years issued a Notification of Inadequate System Margin, a call for extra power plants to be switched on at short notice to keep a sufficient buffer. It paid a plant operated by Calon Energy Ltd. to run for a short time on Wednesday afternoon.