Great Britain’s grid operator warns again over power supplies in heatwave | Energy industry

Great Britain’s power system operator has raised the alarm on electricity supplies for the second time this week as a heatwave continues to impact Europe’s energy markets.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) issued a statement late on Thursday asking generators to provide whatever extra electricity possible by Friday evening to help meet rising demand as households turn on air conditioners and electric fans to cope with the heat.

The operator said it had called for extra power supply due to forecasts showing “margins on the electricity system are tight” for Friday evening due to “the impact of extremely high temperatures affecting Great Britain and the continent”.

The state-owned utility said electricity supply was not at risk, meaning an outage was not imminent.

The market warning was the second this week after Neso called for support on Tuesday night ahead of a surge in demand on Wednesday evening, when the high-pressure heat dome that caused Europe’s worst-ever heatwave was predicted to slow wind speeds in a blow to renewables.

The operator had to pay sums well above the usual market price to generators that were able to increase their electricity production, which would ultimately be paid through household energy bills.

It is estimated he paid around £10 million for a few hours of electricity supplied mostly to gas power stations on Wednesday evening. While power plants across Europe have been forced to shut down due to record temperatures, similarly high payments are expected to secure supply for Friday evening.

Many gas power plants in the UK cut their production due to the heat. In France, which provides a significant portion of Britain’s electricity, four nuclear power plants reported unplanned outages because the temperature of nearby river water was too high to be used to cool the reactors.

French state-owned utility company EDF said on Friday it would allocate €80 million (£69 million) to equip schools, nurseries and nurseries with cooling systems to help them cope with future heatwaves.