Two power station owners to get more than £12m for three hours of electricity
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Uniper and a subsidiary of Vitol able to charge 50 times recent market price to ensure supply during evening peak. Two gas power station owners will be paid more than £12m to supply just three hours of electricity on Wednesday evening after freezing weather led to some of the highest market prices since the energy crisis began.
Britain faced surging power prices after Great Britain’s grid operator warned it would need power plants to fire up in the early evening to have enough electricity to power homes and businesses within its normal safety limits. The National Energy System Operator (Neso) – which manages the energy systems in England, Scotland and Wales – said it faced a shortfall of about 1,700 megawatts (MW), roughly the equivalent of the amount of electricity needed to power about 850,000 homes.
The electricity supply squeeze is expected to hand a windfall to the owners of two power plants in Hertfordshire, England, and Flintshire in north Wales, which will each be paid more than £6m to run their gas turbines between 4pm and 7pm when demand for electricity is forecast to reach its peak.
German utility Uniper and a subsidiary of the Swiss commodities trading giant Vitol offered to fire up their gas plants during the evening hours in exchange for “super-high” payouts of more than 50 times the market price earlier this week, according to experts.
