British Green Electricity Crisis – Britain Paid £9.72 / KWh to Keep the Lights On
6 hours ago Eric Worrall 54 Comments
Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Alba; Imagine receiving a quarterly household electricity bill of £10,000 – because this is the kind of money Britain’s Electricity System Operator paid last Wednesday, to prevent blackouts during the heatwave.
London narrowly avoided blackout as electricity prices surged last week
The UK was forced to pay 5,000% higher than the typical price for electricity to prevent a power blackout in south-east London.
Britain paid the highest price on record for electricity in London last week as the capital narrowly avoided a power blackout, it has emerged.
National Grid’s Electricity System Operator (ESO) was forced to pay £9,724.54 per megawatt hour to Belgium, more than 5,000% higher than the typical price, last Wednesday to prevent a blackout in south-east London, as first reported by Bloomberg.
A sequence of issues around the hottest UK days on record led to extreme constraints in the power system and hiked up demand.
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While the amount bought at the record amount was minimal – reportedly enough to supply eight houses for a year – it has exposed the UK’s reliance on importing electricity from interconnectors overseas, particularly France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
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But Wednesday’s sky-high transaction could be felt by households in their upcoming energy bills as energy suppliers pass on the costs.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/07/26/british-green-electricity-crisis-britain-paid-9-70-kwh-to-keep-the-lights-on/
