Energy Market Brief - Mar18

As the “Beast from the East” hit Europe towards the end of February, which caused a surge in gas and power demand, day-ahead gas and power prices experienced extraordinary spikes. A serious of gas supply and power plant outages only acted to exacerbate price rises.

Day-ahead gas prices across the month rose 6.5% to average 54.4p/th. On 28 February, prices reached 105.0p/th, a five-year high. Below average temperatures bolstered demand, while low LNG imports and a serious of supply outages supported prices. In contrast, seasonal gas contracts fell on average by 5.3%. The largest loss came from the summer 20 contract, which lost 6.6% to average 37.6p/th.

Average day-ahead power prices increased 1.3% to £51.5/MWh. On 28 February power prices reached a one-and-a-half year high of £83.5/MWh, due to a surge in its gas counterpart and several power plant outages. Seasonal baseload power contracts reversed the previous month’s gains and subsided 2.1% on average. Winter 19 power experienced the largest losses, declining 2.7% to average £45.9/MWh..