Great Britain’s grid operator pays £10m for extra power to avoid supply crunch tonight

Neso expected to pay millions to secure enough electricity to meet demand as households turn on fans and air conditioning Great Britain’s grid operator is expected to pay millions to fire up gas power plants to avoid a rare summer power supply crunch on Wednesday evening as extreme heat puts pressure on the energy system. The National Energy System Operator (Neso) is expected to pay about £10m on Wednesday to secure enough electricity to meet demand as households turn on air conditioners and electric fans, according to industry data. The system operator will pay more than four times the usual daily average to secure enough supplies to balance the power system after it issued a notice late on Tuesday asking generators to provide any extra electricity to help meet rising demand due to the impact of the heatwave. The warning was cancelled on Wednesday afternoon after the operator agreed to pay about £1,400 a megawatt-hour, nearly 20 times the average electricity market price in June last year, to secure about 1.7 gigawatts of imported electricity from the continent. A Neso spokesperson said: “This is due to the impact of extremely high temperatures affecting Great Britain and th