UK power market shrugs off IFA limitation: Update

Updates throughout

Capacity on the 2GW IFA power interconnector, between the UK and France, will be halved until February, UK transmission system operator National Grid has said.

But industry concerns regarding security of supply are low, given that the countries have been able to meet demand since the link's capacity was reduced on 16 November.

IFA was initially expected to return to full capacity by the end of this month. A total of four of the eight cables that make up the link have been damaged, National Grid said.

UK power prices are at wide discounts to France, because of continuing technical problems at a number of French nuclear reactors. The UK has exported during most hours so far this winter as a result.

And UK values lost ground today, as the extended cut to interconnector capacity means that the country will be unable to ship as much supply. French prices also edged lower, with forecasts for mild weather weighing on December base load.

UK consumption has surpassed 50GW this week, with colder weather driving strong heating demand — interconnector supply from France has met just 2pc of consumption in some peak hours.

The shutdown means that 1.5GW of the UK's 4GW of interconnector capacity will be unavailable to the domestic grid for most of winter. The 500MW East-West link with Ireland is expected to remain off line until February, having suffered a technical fault in September.