UK power prices reached record levels for Monday 12 December with the day-ahead auction price on the EPEX SE exchange settling at £674.78/MWh and jumping to an all-time high of £2585.80/MWh.
National Grid ESO live data showed gas making up around 60% of electricity generation with a carbon intensity close to 310 gCO2/MWh at 08:00 on Sunday. At 18:00 on Sunday, gas had a 59.9% share of the mix, with imports at 12.3%, hydro at 4.6%, coal at 3.2% and wind making up 2.3% of the share. Nuclear was the best performing low-carbon generator with 14.1%.
Commenting on the record prices, Tom Greatrex, Chief Executive of the Nuclear Industry Association said,
“These unprecedented costs are the price of the UK’s continued reliance on gas, which is wholly unsustainable and completely unaffordable.
“Record prices, coupled with repeated warnings this winter over tight electricity supplies show that the energy crisis is far over and underline the urgent need for a pipeline of new nuclear projects to cut bills and provide clean, reliable, British power, which is essential to stabilise the grid and strengthen energy security.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The UK has five generating nuclear power stations, providing around 16% of the country’s electricity from 5.9 GW of capacity.
- Two stations will retire by March 2024, and all but one will retire by March 2028.
- Nuclear has saved the UK 2.3 billion tonnes of carbon emissions, far more than any other source. The saving is equivalent to all UK emissions from 2015 through 2020.
- The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) found that nuclear has the lowest lifecycle carbon of all technologies, the lowest land use of all low-carbon technologies and the lowest lifecycle impact on ecosystems of any electricity technology. Read the full report here.
About the Nuclear Industry Association
As the trade association for the civil nuclear industry in the UK, the Nuclear Industry Association represents more than 250 companies across the UK’s nuclear supply chain.
Links
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For further information, please contact:
Iolo James
[email protected]
07517108023
