A slump in power generated by wind farms has seen the price of power jump again as gas and coal-fired stations across Europe stepped up to fill the gap.
Low winds across the Continent saw Poland declare a state-of-emergency for its power market on Wednesday, while the UK saw gas-fired power generation hit its highest level since November 2023.
According to the reports, winter gas stocks were used to meet demand in some countries while Bloomberg said that net withdrawals from the European Union’s overall inventory exceeded two terawatt-hours on Monday.
Commentators noted that this is at a time of low heating demand due to mild temperatures across Europe.
One of the big drawbacks of renewables is that they depend on the weather underlining comments from NESO, the UK grid operator, yesterday that even if Britain achieves its net zero 2020 target, gas-fired plants will still be needed as a backup.
Power prices in Europe today were trading close to two-month highs.