You may have seen in the news that National Grid had to call on emergency backup power supply measures last week, claiming a series of plant breakdowns had created a shortage of adequate supply margin.

Due to high demand and limited supply, the cost of power rocketed between 4.30pm and 7.30pm that day, to five times its normal price.  An immediate concern is that this situation has happened so early in November on a mild autumn evening when power demand was significantly below what we will need to find on a cold winter’s night.  We expect peak prices to be very high this winter due to the tightness in the supply system.

So please reduce your peak time electrical use – between 4pm and 7.30pm (Nov – Feb)!  If it doesn’t need to be on, please switch it off. 

Roughly 70% of CEMEX UK’s power demand has been pre bought, so what are the impacts of higher prices?

• If you are over 70% of your site operational load at these peak times, you will be buying the additional power at these high prices. This averages up your cost of power against budget.
• If you are below 70% of your site operational load, you will be selling back your pre-bought power at these high prices and turning a profit. This averages down your power cost.

Please let us know if you need any further support or information to lessen this cost impact over the next 4 months. Things are likely to get worse as we head into the winter nights and don’t just wait for a TRIAD warning to be called as this is just one of the factors (albeit the most expensive).