On July 20, rising electricity demand collided with a bottleneck in the UK’s power grid, leaving eastern parts of the capital London at risk of power failure.
Only by importing power from our country, via the Nemo link, could a blackout be avoided, Bloomberg writes. The British would have had to pay a record price of 9,724.54 pounds (converted about 11,424.9 euros) per megawatt hour for this. That is the highest amount ever to import electricity to the UK, it sounds, and almost five times more than the previous record amount. By comparison, the British paid on average £178 per megawatt hour last year.
Electricity was imported between 12 noon and 1 pm. It would have been only a small amount, but enough to keep the light on. The price that was paid, according to Bloomberg, proves the desperation that prevailed at the time. Import from across the Channel was the only option.
“Had Belgium not come to the rescue, the network operator would have been obliged to send the demand and disconnect houses,” a spokesperson for the British network said.