By Susanna Twidale
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s National Energy System Operator (NESO) has warned of tight electricity supplies on Wednesday evening and urged utilities to make more power available.
The NESO is responsible for maintaining Britain’s power supply and has a range of measures available to ensure there is enough electricity to meet demand.
Late on Tuesday, with much of Britain entering a cold snap, it issued an electricity margin notice asking generators to make more power available on Wednesday evening.
At 1200 GMT, it said there could still be a system margin shortfall of 1,120 megawatts compared with the amount it would like to be available.
It also issued a capacity market notice but cancelled it shortly after.
Under the capacity market scheme, generators are paid to make sure power generation is available at times when demand is high.
“These notices do not mean that electricity supplies are at risk or that there is not enough electricity to meet demand,” a NESO spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“Both of these notices are part of NESO’s operational toolkit and are routine tools used most winters.”
(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Kevin Liffey)
