STATS have revealed that the strong winds brought to Britain by Storm Éowyn had a major impact on the country’s energy supply.
Yesterday the National Grid received a whopping 44% of its total energy from wind power, resulting in the price per megawatt dropping by almost 90%.
Standard pricing for a megawatt of electricity in the UK currently sits just over £100 but in the early hours of this morning that dropped massively to just £11.
Data from the open-source National Grid Live website run by Kate Morely shows a dramatic drop in price from last Wednesday to today with the amount of energy generated by wind drastically increasing.
These sudden changes peaked on Friday in the middle of the red-alert storm and have since begun to return to normal.
Emissions per kilowatt of energy also followed this trend, dipping dramatically between last Wednesday and Friday and steadily increasing following the passing of Storm Éowyn.
Wind power appears to have made up the majority of the renewable energy on the grid last week with it accounting for 32.5% of the 35.8% total.
The dramatic impact brought prices down for users significantly with yesterday’s figures showing a megawatt cost just £10.09 as wind made up 43.3% of the energy on the grid.
The price per megawatt fell last week from £155 on Wednesday to just £79 on Saturday, dropping by nearly half following the storm.
On Friday when Storm Éowyn was at full tilt, wind power generated a massive 17.69 gigawatts of energy for the grid, whilst the next closest source – gas generated just 6.89 gigawatts.
Yesterday despite the increase in wind generation the grid generated 32 gigawatts, just 88.4% of demand, requiring transfers of energy from other countries to make up the rest.
Wind power in the gusts left over by Éowyn made up 32.5% of this, more than a third of demand.
With strong winds still prevalent across the UK in the wake of the storm, the trends seen are remaining steady with prices falling and wind generation up.
As the weather begins to return to normal again, prices will inevitably rise back to standard rates with wind generating less energy.
