Natural gas demand from power stations across the UK hit a near six-year high on November 23, reaching 79 million cubic meters.
That was “the highest for a single day since mid-December 2010” having risen from 74 million cu m November 22 and 69 million cu m November 21, a S&P Global Platts analysis of National Grid data indicated.
This brought the month-to-date average up close to the 70 million cu m/d mark, higher than the October average of 65 million cu m/d “where total monthly gas-for-power demand was above the 2 Bcm mark for only the second time since January 2011” it said.
“Gas-for-power demand in the UK this year so far is almost 50% higher than the 2015 period on the back of coal-fired power plant closures and more favorable generation economics” it said.
“Moreover, cumulative gas-for-power demand since the beginning of the winter-delivery period on October 1 of 3.6 Bcm is already closing in on the Q4 2015 total of 3.7 Bcm and is on course to be the highest for a fourth quarter this decade” the price reporting agency said.
The month-ahead clean spark spread -- the theoretical margin available to a 50%-efficient HHV gas-fired power plant including emissions -- was assessed at GBP24.253/MWh Wednesday by S&P Global Platts, with the quarter-ahead equivalent at GBP20.876/MWh, it said.