London (Platts)--25Feb2013/841 am EST/1341 GMT

Prompt UK power prices tracked the surging NBP gas market to hit a one-year high Monday ahead of stronger demand and lower wind and nuclear power generation, market sources said.

On the OTC market day-ahead baseload was last heard GBP4.50 above Friday's close at GBP58.50/MWh, over 8% higher, and the highest since February 6, 2012 when day-ahead baseload was assessed at GBP58/MWh, Platts price data shows.

On the N2EX day-head baseload power auction, the price outturned slightly higher than OTC at GBP59.10/MWh.

Peak daily power demand is expected to be high Tuesday evening at around 53.7 GW while wind generation is forecast to fall to below 1 GW and nuclear generation is reduced following a planned maintenance outage.

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In addition, NBP prompt gas prices rose to five-week highs Friday and remained firm over 70 pence/therm Monday morning as cold weather remained in place throughout the UK, pushing up heating demand.

The average NBP day-ahead price during January was below 70 p/th at 66.83 p/th but was was seen at 74.50 p/th early in the day, falling back toward midday to around 72.75-72.95 p/th (a little over $11/MMBtu).

In London, temperatures are currently 2 degrees Celsius below the seasonal norm of 3-9 C and will remain between 1-2 C below the average over the coming week, CustomWeather data shows.

Wind generation midday was pegged at a subdued 1.6 GW (or 3.4%) but will slump to below 800 MW over Tuesday's peak hours while nuclear generation is lower at 7.8 GW (or 15.7%) following the start of maintenance on unit 8 of the 890 MW Hunterston B nuclear plant Friday which has shaved just below 450 MW from total nuclear generation.

Gas-fired power generation was strong midday at 18.2 GW (or 36.4%) but is likely to rise higher Tuesday, increasing the cost of electricity generation, as wind generation wanes.

Coal-fired power remains dominant at 20 GW (or 40.2%), National Grid data shows.

Further out on the prompt weekend and week-ahead baseload were both heard midday Monday lower than Friday's close at GBP50/MWh and GBP50.85/MWh respectively as wintry conditions are set to warm moving forward.

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