London (Platts)--14Sep2012/641 am EDT/1041 GMT
UK wind power generation climbed steadily Thursday evening to hit new record highs of almost 4 GW at 20.00 local time (1900 GMT), with levels above 3.5 GW sustained overnight and into Friday morning. Wind power output set a new all-time record of 3.98 GW averaged over the half hour between 21.30 and 22.00, according to National Grid data. System demand at this time was 34.9 GW suggesting wind generation contributed an average of 10% of the generation mix over this time block. The generation outturn for this period fell short of the forecast value of 4.7 GW. In addition, Friday's peak wind power output was forecast at 4.9 GW for 5.00 local time, but outturned at around 3.5 GW, with outright generation falling over 1 GW short of forecasts over subsequent time blocks. The highest half hour average generation prior to Thursday night occurred during offpeak demand hours on Sunday, May 13 this year when wind output outturned at 3.8 GW, a National Grid spokesman told Platts Thursday. Earlier this week generation touched highs of 3.36 GW according to real-time data just before 15.30 Tuesday causing gas-fired power to slump to 6.9 GW -- its lowest mid-afternoon weekday levels on record, according to gas flow analysts at Platts Powervision. At 8.30 wind generation was pegged at 3.7 GW or just over 10% of the energy mix, however CCGT output remains above Tuesday's lows at 7.4 GW in part due to subdued nuclear generation levels. Reduced dependence on costly gas-fired power over Friday's peak demand hours weighed on the price of day-ahead baseload power at Thursday's market close. On the OTC market day-ahead baseload fell 4% day-on-day from GBP43.80/MWh to GBP42.20/MWh at Thursday's close, Platts data shows.--Jillian Ambrose, jillian_ambrose@platts.com--Edited by Maurice Geller, maurice_geller@platts.comSimilar stories appear in European Power Daily. See more information at http://www.platts.com/Products/europeanpowerdaily