British government plans to construct new gas-fired power plants

The average Dutch spot price last week was 64.5 €/MWh, and the average day-ahead gas price, at 25.5 €/MWh, was one euro lower than the previous week. Conventional power plants were generally marginal for the majority of working days. Towards the end of the week, we saw wind generation increase again, which lowered power prices. On Friday, it was also announced that there would be production restrictions for some coal and gas plants in Groningen in the coming weeks, meaning less power can be delivered by these plants during peak hours.
The imbalance market was very volatile over the weekend. On Saturday, we saw imbalance prices shoot up between the morning and the early afternoon to around 1900 €/MWh. This seems to have been generally caused by a drop in renewable generation. In the Netherlands solar generation was lower than anticipated. In Germany both solar and wind generation was lower at times. On Sunday, the opposite was observed: imbalance prices during the solar hours were very negative, falling as low as -375 €/MWh.
For the coming months, there was little movement in the settlement prices compared to the previous week. Gas increased by half a euro to 27 €/MWh. CO2 for the remainder of the year closed one euro higher at 59.4 €/EUA. Apart from April, Dutch power futures barely moved compared to the previous week. April closed one and a half euros lower at 52.6 €/MWh. Clean spark spreads for the upcoming quarter deteriorated. The spark spreads for April and May stood at -20 and -24 €/MWh, respectively.

Last week, it was announced that the British government intends to build more gas-fired power plants. In addition, the government intends to extend the lifespan of some existing gas plants. It expects that the gas plants that will be built will be capable of using carbon capture storage technologies or running entirely on hydrogen. According to the British Energy Minister, around 15 GW of gas-fired capacity will disappear in the coming years, and approximately 5 GW of new capacity will need to be built to ensure a secure system. Last month, the German government also announced plans to build more gas-fired capacity (Duitsland wil relatief snel 10 GW aan gasgestookte centrales bouwen – PZEM).
For 2025, gas didn’t move much and closed at 30.3 €/MWh. CO2 increased by one euro to 61.6 €/EUA. The Dutch power contract became one and a half euros more expensive, settling at 76 €/MWh. The clean spark spread improved by almost one euro and was approximately -3.8 €/MWh. The dark spread was -14.6 €/MWh.