3rd January 2018 | Posted by: Daniel Birkett | Market Analysis

Gas Power
Market Close Market Close
Gas prices moved down during yesterday’s session as milder weather is expected over the coming days and supply levels are comfortable. UKCS has recovered as the Forties pipeline was expected to be fully operational today, resulting in a long system. However, downward movement further along the curve was limited by stronger coal and oil markets. Wind generation was expected to rise today as Storm Eleanor was set to hit the UK; this helped the prompt record a strong loss with the rest of the near-curve moving down on the back of healthy gas supply and mild weather. An increase in coal and oil prices restricted losses at the back of the curve but the overall trend remained bearish.
Market Open Market Open
Fundamentals are general unchanged today with mild weather and windy conditions expected for the rest of the week, reducing LDZ and CCGT demand. The system is 18mcm long as flows are in line with yesterday’s figures, resulting in losses across the near-curve this morning. Meanwhile, oil prices display a small gain providing some support on the far-curve. As expected, wind generation has increased to over 10GW this morning but these levels are expected to fall tomorrow resulting in a significant gain for Day-Ahead power. The near-curve displays losses as temperatures are expected to remain above the seasonal norm in the coming days, while the oil market continues to offer bullish resistance further along the curve.

For a breakdown of the current generation mix visit our Power Generation Insights page.

Brent Summary

Brent sits at a 32-month high with bullish sentiment provided over the Christmas holidays by protests in Iran, an outage in Libya and repair work being carried out on the Forties pipeline; Brent currently trades just above $66.7/b.

1-year forward prices

Market close data has revealed that the 1-year forward price for both commercial gas & commercial electricity decreased– closing at 49.00ppt and £47.66/MWh, respectively.

Today’s prices can also be found in an easy to read table on our ‘current UK energy price' page.

Click graph to enlarge

energy price graph - 03-01-2018

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