Gas output decreased by over a third to 13.4TWh, the lowest quarterly figure recorded by Montel Analytics in the last 20 years. Gas prices fluctuated throughout the quarter, starting at £23.24/MWh, dipping to a low of £21.26/MWh in early April, then rising above £23.00/MWh for most of the month. After a brief decline in mid-May due to a warm spell, prices peaked at £30.06/MWh on June 3 and remained above £26.00/MWh for the rest of the quarter, closing at £27.35/MWh.
Average transmission system demand dropped to 23.5GW, the lowest figure for any Q2 since the first lockdown in 2020. This decline was partly due to milder weather in May and late June, increased embedded generation from solar, and load shifting from batteries and other sources.
Renewables made up 47% of the GB power generation mix, with wind output at 17.2TWh, biomass at 6.8TWh, and hydro at 1.1TWh, all contributing to Britain’s clean energy output. Solar generation reached its highest level for any recent quarter, rising from 4.90TWh in Q2 last year to 5.1TWh.
GB net imports increase
Overall GB power generation (excluding imports) fell 17% from the previous quarter to 54.6TWh, marking the lowest quarterly total since Q2 2022. This reduction was due to decreased demand and high levels of imports, which led to a significant drop in output from CCGT plants.
Net imports into GB increased to 9.2TWh from 7.4TWh in the previous quarter, with the majority of power coming from France (6.4TWh).
Phil Hewitt, director at Montel Analytics – which is part of the Montel – said: “Solar generation rose by 4% on Q2 last year, which is lower than the previous year-on-year growth in Q2 2023 but this is in the context of some pretty horrible weather. The pattern of demand destruction also continued due in part to warmer weather and people and businesses becoming more conscious of limiting their energy costs.
“Higher levels of net imports resulted in very low gas output, while gas prices increased steadily following a decline in the previous quarter. This rise was driven by several factors including escalating tensions in the Middle East affecting liquid nitrogen gas (LNG) shipments, an earlier-than-expected stop in Russian gas flows to Austria, and reduced supplies from Norway due to maintenance at production facilities.
Decommissioning of the last coal-fired power station
“Wind output fell from 24.9TWh in the first quarter to 17.2TWh in quarter two. Reductions in wind generation became necessary during windy spells, with bid volumes being used to reduce the excess of available wind generation. Most of the accepted bids occurred during the first three weeks in April and the highest daily bid volume for the quarter of more than 4GW was observed on the morning of June 28 when wind was substantially high.
“The nuclear fleet mostly operated at capacity in this quarter due to the return to service of most units, with only limited outages observed compared to the previous quarter. Consequently, generation increased by 37% on a quarter-on-quarter basis to 10.7TWh, the highest for any quarter since Q3 2022.
“Meanwhile, coal-fired generation fell to 0.3TWh from 1.0TWh in Q1 2024. This decline aligns with the decommissioning of the last coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, which is scheduled to close on September 30 this year.”
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