Wednesday 12 October 2011

UK faces colder-than-normal winter - National Grid

Britain faces another colder-than-normal winter at a time when energy exports may surge as Europe struggles to cope without 8.3 Gigawatts of German nuclear capacity following the Fukushima disaster in Japan in March.

The prospect of greater exports squeezing UK gas and electricity supplies may force operators to backtrack and restart 2 Gigawatts (GW) of mothballed power generation capacity.
"We would expect the market to respond by exporting energy out of the UK which will lift power prices and encourage mothballed plants to restart," according to a spokesman from National Grid.

In its Winter Outlook 2011/2012 forecast published on Tuesday, National Grid said colder temperatures and Germany's decision to phase out swathes of nuclear capacity will increase exports from Britain to Europe.

"Germany's recent decision to close 8.3 GW of nuclear plant immediately and put in place a phased closure of all nuclear plant by 2022 is expected to have impacts during this winter," the network operator said.

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