‘Weather bomb’ expected to cause cut in UK energy prices
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Gusts of up to 80mph may cause disruption and damage but also increase cheap wind power. A looming “weather bomb” is expected to snuff out a surge in wholesale energy prices after windfarms produced the lowest levels of electricity since September 2023.
Cloudy and still weather has caused Great Britain’s renewable energy output to fall to near zero this week but is expected to give way to gusts of up to 80mph, alongside heavy rain and snow, on Thursday and Friday. The rapid onset of the “weather bomb” is expected to raise the risk of travel disruptions and damage caused by flying debris – but it will also lead to tumbling wholesale electricity prices by causing cheap wind power to surge 40-fold in 48 hours.
Britain’s wind power output fell to just above zero on Wednesday which, combined with the cold, dark weather, caused the market price for electricity to climb to almost £250 per megawatt-hour at auction, or almost seven times the average price before the pandemic.
The sudden drop-off in renewable energy due to dull windless winter weather, known as dunkelflaute in German, has also forced the system operator to pay gas power plants sums of more than £500/MWh to run on Wednesday evening when household demand is expected to reach its peak.
The weather conditions – the third dunkelflaute of the winter so far – left Britain’s electricity grid reliant on gas-fired power plants. Those plants accounted for more than 70% of power generation at points on Wednesday. However, electricity prices for Thursday and Friday have fallen by more than half to £107/MWh and £84/MWh respectively at auction as wind power is forecast to surge from 0.4GW to 16GW by Friday morning.
