Zero prices (Christmas Day)
Research notes
Figures are for London unless they say otherwise.
What happened
- Tue 25 Dec: London reached 0p at 11:00 (4 hours at 0p in all); average 12.6p, peak 29.2p at 16:30; all 14 regions at 0p or below; lowest 0.0p in Eastern England.
Likely causes
- Christmas Day: businesses closed, so demand was low for a weekday. Total supply peaked at only about 37GW, against about 47GW on cold weekday evenings that winter (see the 22 and 26 Nov 2018 events). (inference from NESO data)
- Tue 25 Dec, 11:00 (London's lowest half-hour): wind 3.8GW (10% of supply), solar 0.9GW, gas 16.7GW (45%), imports 3.1GW, total supply 37.3GW. Over the day wind averaged 3.6GW; the 2018 average was 5.8GW (17%). Source: NESO historic generation mix. (figures confirmed by source; link to prices is inference)
- Tue 25 Dec was a bank holiday (Christmas Day), when demand is lower. (inference)
- Elexon market index: Tue 25 Dec averaged £64.56/MWh with a low of £53.43 at 06:00. Source: Elexon market index, Tue 25 Dec. (confirmed by source; a short-term index, not the day-ahead auction Agile follows)
Wider context that week
- Nothing notable found for that week.
Confidence
Medium. Wind was only 10% of supply at the 0p half-hour, so low demand on a holiday is the likely reason; no report found.
Gaps
- No report of Christmas Day 2018 prices found.
- Elexon's system warnings feed has no entries before mid-2023, so warnings for these days couldn't be checked there.