Zero prices (midday, weekend)
Research notes
Figures are for London unless they say otherwise.
What happened
- Sun 17 Apr: London reached 0p at 15:00; average 21.0p, peak 35.0p at 16:30; all 14 regions at 0p or below; lowest 0.0p in Eastern England.
Likely causes
- Sun 17 Apr, 15:00 (London's lowest half-hour): wind 11.4GW (37% of supply), solar 6.3GW, gas 2.2GW (7%), imports 3GW, total supply 30.9GW. Over the day wind averaged 8.4GW; the 2022 average was 8.8GW (27%). Source: NESO historic generation mix. (figures confirmed by source; link to prices is inference)
- The low came around midday on Sun 17 Apr, with solar at 6.3GW. (inference from NESO data)
- Sun 17 Apr was at the weekend, when demand is lower. (inference)
- Elexon market index: Sun 17 Apr averaged £93.75/MWh with a low of £4.84 at 16:00. Source: Elexon market index, Sun 17 Apr. (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. The grid figures fit the prices, but no report found names a cause for this date.
Gaps
- No news report or official write-up found that ties this date to a cause; the causes above are from the data.
- Elexon's system warnings feed has no entries before mid-2023, so warnings for these days couldn't be checked there.