Unseasonal Temperatures help to melt prices
 
16 November 2009
Middle of November but no sign of wintery temperatures. The effect was to soften the prompt power market, which also felt the pressure from weak commodity curves. The downward trend fed through the power curve.  
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What's Happening in the Back-End?
 
19 June 2009
The back end of the curve is extremely difficult to trade. Those dipping their toe in tend to be Producers (with excessive length adjusting their risk positions) and Banks looking for some exposure. At the same time Retailers tend to be short-termist.  
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Gas takes the Lion's Share
 
24 December 2008
Some interesting figures and statistics emerged from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Energy Trends report published this week - increased power demand, improved efficiencies and record fuel percentage shares.  
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Cashing in on the Power Price Highs
 
29 August 2008
A number of coal-fired power stations, that opted out of the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD), appear to have exceeded operating expectations to take advantage of high summer power prices  
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Feeling the Squeeze
 
13 May 2008
Centrica will not repeat last year’s exceptional level of profitability their Chief Executive warned yesterday. But with rising energy prices it’s interesting to understand how they’re not cashing in.  
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Coal looks interesting
 
11 January 2008
Coal although massively in demand has risen so much in price that players have switched to gas, this in turn has risen and perhaps as all commodities prices start to fall on economics some will start to look at coal more seriously again.  
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Nuclear go ahead of sorts
 
10 January 2008
Nuclear given go-ahead but there is still a lot to do before they produce electricity most predict it will be 2020 before the first project gets on the bars.  
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Ofgem liaise with Darling
 
07 January 2008
Darling thinks that Ofgem may hold the answers but Ofgem rightly do not interfere with markets something which Darling should be aware of.  
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25GW of off-shore wind farms
 
10 December 2007
The DTI (as was) has highlighted a potential 25GW of off-shore wind farms, if accurate there are still significant planning obstacles.  
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Coal makes a reappearance
 
08 June 2007
Coal is still the dominant fuel type for new build projects but as prices start to rise some projects may look less appealing.  
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The carbon backlash
 
05 June 2007
Energy watch is taking up the consumer battle and attempting to try and lobby parliament to ensure that the power companies are not making super normal profits from carbon.  
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Langeled and Drax
 
29 March 2007
Large marginal plant can be an advantage but it can also effect markets quite significantly.  
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British Energy plays Monopoly.
 
14 February 2007
British Energy have the property they just can't seem to get past GO. This is not helped by the other players who avoid jail and income tax and seem to be getting some large throws on the electricity company, producing some large rents.  
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Could this be the bottom?
 
06 February 2007
The market is poised for a cold Wednesday and few generators starting to buy, will this entice someof the shorts to the market.  
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The market quiet
 
02 February 2007
The market is now stating that it is close to the bottom, this generally means that there is further to go.  
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Scottish Power and the spaniards
 
29 November 2006
Scottish Powers shareholders will be happy with the size of the bid and the fact that it is going through but it is not a good long term investment as debt levels will be high.  
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A tale of the forward dark spread.
 
16 October 2006
Some long term hedging is effecting the market and the lack of buyers has caused the markets to turn South, although oil has bobbled up on Friday the long term trend still appears to be down.  
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Two views on August.
 
18 July 2006
Two views on AUgust appear to at loggerheads and the sellers and buyers are trading aggressively. One suspects that the events of today and this week will be long forgotten by mid August.  
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Middle East explodes in the markets
 
17 July 2006
The short term facts suggest that the market had to go higher, but this does not mean that we should see the back end of the curve rise inexorably as well. Some sellers are keeping a cap on the backend of the curve but the buyers also have to be disciplined.  
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Watch the prompt
 
04 July 2006
Gas prices reducing as system gets longer on many gas stations taking outages. This has put pressure on the August and September to fall and if the power plant return steadily then we could see a move in Winter 06 out of £60.  
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Penalties, and prompt.
 
03 July 2006
Prompt prices the key fundamental as to what will happen with the power market. If in the next three days there are no further outages and the weather subsides so air-condintioning is not causing problems then we should see the Winter 06 fall further.  
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Could Summer hot up.
 
29 June 2006
A few trades are beginning show that they have some merit, Summer could be under some pressure in the next few weeks but after that we should see an oversupplied August and September.  
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8 GW of plant goes on outage.
 
28 June 2006
A stream of plant are now on outage if the market fundamentals can cope (which everything suggests they can) then we are in for a low Summer, and this could pull Winter with it.  
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Which Came First - the Chicken or the Egg?
 
21 June 2006
British Energy reported pre-tax profits of £599m saying it had benefited from the higher electricity prices. Of course it is news to no-one that power prices have risen, but what is interesting is that some players have claimed that emissions price rises are causing power prices to rise, and perhaps more interestingly, some claim that power price rises are causing emission prices to rise. There is however no doubt that a fall in one of the commodities does not automatically lead to a corresponding fall in the other commodity. So Powerisk asks the question which comes first.  
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885MW CCGT Planned
 
20 June 2006
Centrica have announced the planned build of a 885MW CCGT plant in Devon citing its expectation of falling NBP gas prices versus power prices in the coming years as the contributory deciding factor.  
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Dawn Raids
 
18 May 2006
Soking guns, dawn raids, and still no massive sell off in UK power or emissions, but the signs are there that a sustained commodities growth isn't always a certainty.  
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The cyclical process of business strategy
 
16 March 2006
Asset switching takes time, and quite often the early mover, benefits most. This process is cyclical and many are questioning the appointment of a new chief exec at Centrica to assess whether this is to try and speed up the asset switching cycle.  
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Isn't it Ironic
 
14 March 2006
Dark and spark spreads have polarised the market, but when its cold and the flexibility to adjust in the gas market goes, so does the price.  
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Does shape matter?
 
27 February 2006
Under the NETA rules the market would always favour those who are flexible and able to adapt. As stability in market prices is becoming more normal, this allows players to assess the market even start to think about creating flexibility within their own shape.  
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Standby for reality.
 
23 January 2006
TV's require 7.3TWh of power when on standby overnight, this is the equivalent of the demand for Brighton. It would be good to reduce this figure but just how practical is it in reality.  
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Will coal really close by 2015.
 
09 January 2006
Coal and emissions still cheaper than gas, and so energy reviews and white papers cannot take away the economic facts that the dash for gas was right for the 1990's, and less apt for now.  
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