British gas prices dived again on Monday as warmer weather cut forecast demand, while another nuclear power plant restart over the weekend helped drive down wholesale electricity prices. The price of gas for delivery on Monday plunged from 44 pence per therm at the end of last week to 39 pence, while the rest of the working week dropped four pence to 38.80 pence as demand for the heating and power generation fuel dived to well below normal for the time of year. Power prices also fell sharply, driven down by the restart of the Heysham 1-1 nuclear power reactor over the weekend, leaving only two of British Energy’s BGY.L 16 reactors still offline on Monday. “Power plant availability looks quite good,” one power market trader said, adding falling gas prices and demand were also behind the drop in wholesale electricity costs.

Baseload electricity for Tuesday fell to 39.25 pounds per meagwatt hour, compared with 44.50 pounds paid at the end of last week for Monday baseload contracts, while March power contracts fell to around 39 pounds from 42.00 pounds on Friday, as gas contracts for next month dived 5.5 pence to 38.75 pence, according to brokers. The National Grid website showed the national gas network was well supplied with fuel, in part because demand was forecast to be 27 million cubic metres below normal for the time of year on Monday, while demand is forecast to fall further still on Tuesday.

Forward gas prices also slid, following another fall in oil prices, with Summer 2009 contracts dropping 3.50 pence to 36.30 pence per therm and Winter 2009 similarly softer at 52.60 pence.

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