UK energy mix shifts further from gas towards coal during 2012

• 11 years ago (2013-01-11)
• Junior Isles

Europe 1089 Renewables 776

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The UK’s generation mix shifted further from gas-fired generation towards coal during 2012, a trend that looks likely to continue in 2013 due to rising gas prices and falling fuel and emissions allowance costs for coal, according to analysis from Platts.

The variability of the generation mix has also increased in line with growing renewable energy capacity, with the intermittent nature of wind generation providing a year of record lows and highs for gas-fired and oil-fired generation.

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change’s official figures show that gas fired power generation had fallen 40.9 per cent to 22.83 TWh by the third quarter of 2012, while coal-fired power rose by 49.9 per cent from the same quarter the previous year to 28.66 TWh in Q3.

Cheap European coal and even cheaper EU Emissions Allowances have been key factors driving the increase of coal-fired power generation, showing steadily growing incentives for generators to turn to coal-fired power, according to market sources.

September 28th marked 14 year lows for UK gas-fired power generation, prompted by a perfect storm of uneconomic spark spreads, strong winds and typically lower Friday power demand. Shortly before midday, gas generation contributed just 5.6 GW, or 14.1 per cent of the total generation mix, while coal-fired power dominated at almost 50 per cent of the mix at 19.2 GW.

These record lows for gas generation were set against strong wind generation figures of 3.5 GW during the same period. The lows came just weeks after the start-up of the 500 MW Greater Gabbard Offshore wind farm, at the time the world's largest offshore wind farm – though now surpassed by the 630 MW capacity London Array project.

This increased wind capacity in November saw a succession of UK wind generation records, at just above 4.5 GW on November 20th.