The UK could see a power supply margin shortfall during the solar eclipse on Wednesday amid high demand in the new heatwave that is sweeping through Britain and the rest of Europe this week.
There is no risk to customer supplies, but a notice has been issued to the market and power generators as the eclipse will block sunlight between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday evening.
The National Energy System Operator issued a notice today to encourage market actions to increase system margins.
For the period from 18:00 hrs to 20:00 hrs on Wednesday, August 12, there is a reduced system margin, with the system margin shortfall estimated at about 1.2 gigawatts (GW), the operator said.
The current contingency requirement is 676 megawatts (MW), while 1,000 MW of generation is excluded from the available system margin due to system constraints.
The operator warned that Maximum Generation Service may be instructed.
An electricity margin notice is used to send a signal to the electricity market. It highlights that the energy system operator would like to have a greater safety cushion (margin) between power demand and available supply in the short term.
Such notice “does not signal that blackouts are imminent or that there is not enough generation to meet current demand,” the operator said.
Energy system operators and electricity producers across Europe are preparing for a temporary drop in solar power during the solar eclipse on Wednesday.
The solar eclipse will be total and observable for parts of Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal, while most European countries will see a partial solar eclipse.
In Europe, the total solar eclipse is the first in three decades, while the UK will see a partial eclipse, which, at its peak, would see around 90% of the Sun covered by the Moon from London. In Cornwall, as much as 95% of the Sun could be obscured.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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