I have been monitoring the power generation for the UK National Grid since 2000. Here is an update covering the period between November 2022 until February 20th 2023. Note that I have also generously corrected for wind power by factoring in unmetered wind farms (using an enhanced factor of 1.6). The solar energy data is generated by the University of Sheffield and is based on a their modelling using national sunshine data. All other values are directly from the Elexon interface . Here below are the overall results.
Hourly power demand. The larger dips are weekends and public holidays – note Christmas period. Stable Nuclear output has recently fallen following the closure of Hinkley B. (Click for details)
The interplay of gas usage to balance wind power generation is best seen in the following graph.
Wind compared to Gas.
This shows the dependency of wind power on gas to cover weather changes in wind generation (Click for details)
There were two successive wind lulls in early December and two short ones in Jan/Feb. These were very expensive since gas prices have more than doubled since last year for reasons we all know.
The following table gives the net contribution of each fuel to UK power generation
| Wind | Nuclear | Gas | Coal |
| 25.1 | 17.2 | 40.5 | 1.6 |
| Pump+Hydro | Solar | Bio | Imports |
| 2.2 | 3.5 | 5.7 | 2.6 |
Something I do not yet understand is why total “metered” power generation appears to have fallen slightly in under two years!
Daily fuel contributions to peak power (6pm)
Brexit/COVID/increasing poverty?
Or more simple way people are burning more wood ?
Energy bills have doubled since we and everyone else depends on Gas. Maybe that has cut back consumer demand. However there is another reason they look different. I realised that the second graph is just the maximum power at 6pm every day for a year!. The first one are hourly figures for a couple of months !
Enappsys’s annual review comments on the fall in demand. There’s a long term trend of decline coupled with more recent price increases (and depending where you are getting data from, a rise in embedded generation) https://mcusercontent.com/20453b93e5889c4b00c0d553c/files/163a6459-4add-4f96-5312-cc52445be1f0/2022_Annual_Market_Summary_GB.01.pdf