UK wind drops, gas covers 54% of generation

With ambient temperature around 11° C in southeast England, and with almost no wind, gas-fired generation was meeting 54% of British electricity supply at midday May 14, according to data from Gridwatch. Nuclear, solar and biomass were at 10%, 9% and 8%, respectively. Wind was 1.7% of the mix.

About 80mn m³ of UK gas deliveries were projected to flow into power stations based on National Grid data for May 14. A week or so earlier, during milder, windier weather, gas and wind had been equal at about 30% each at times. 

There were low deliveries of LNG into the Isle of Grain and the two Milford Haven terminals, according to data from National Grid. They supplied 45mn m³ with Norway's Ormen Lange gas field delivering about 66mn m³ at the Easington terminal.

However about 12mn m³ were flowing out of the UK again, with 12mn m³ exported through interconnectors. These typically carry more gas in summer to meet storage injection demand and include regasified LNG and Norwegian gas. Local distribution networks took about 128mn m³ and industry 10mn m³

There was no demand for gas for storage injection in the UK, while on the continent, inventories are slowly rising and now are at 32% full with one and a half of the six months – a quarter of the normal injection season – passed.

UK storage capacity has been very small since the closure of the Rough field in 2017. It can cover about 2% of annual demand, compared with about 25% of many countries on the continent. It used to rely on swing gas production from the now-depleting Morecambe Bay fields in the Irish Sea. They had delivered no gas at time of press. The interconnectors reverse flow in winter in response to slightly higher UK spot gas prices.