Britain has seen the net value of its power imports skyrocket in the first half of this year, rising by more than 80%.
A new report by research firm Montel Analytics revealed that in the first six months of this year, Britain imported 18.9TWh more electricity than it exported, representing an 81.7% rise from the latter half of 2023.
Average interconnector flows from Belgium to Britain increased to hit 230MW, with flows from the Netherlands and Norway also rising, reaching 195MW and 100MW, respectively. Flows from Denmark to Britain rose significantly due to the opening of the Viking Link interconnector in December 2023, with Denmark exporting 400MW to Britain.
This rise has been attributed to several factors, including milder than usual weather in the UK, the aforementioned opening of the Viking Interconnector, rising nuclear availability in France alongside lower French power demand, and increases in solar generation in the Netherlands and Germany.
However, exports to the island of Ireland increased by 16%, reaching 82MW.
Phil Hewitt, director at Montel Analytics, said: “The sharp rise in net power inflows to Britain in the first six months of this year is unsurprising given the wide range of factors that influenced it. Other than a prolonged mild spell of weather, the availability of the French nuclear fleet improved markedly, meaning that it increased output by 10% compared to the second half of last year and low French power demand meant that some of this excess power was dumped into Britain. This resulted in net imports from France into GB doubling to 11.7TWh in the first half of 2024 compared with the last six months of 2023. Excess power from France also flowed into Belgium, resulting in a 90% increase in net imports from the latter country to GB.
“The overall rise in net power imports to GB would have been higher had it not been for a 16% increase in power exports from Britain to Ireland over the past year. However, this didn’t do much to offset the much steeper rises in electricity flows from the continent and the Nordics.”
Britain is the second largest net importer of electricity in Europe, coming second only to Italy, which imported 25.4TWh of electricity in the first half of this year. Interestingly, Italy’s H12024 net import value is significantly closer to its H2 2023 figure, where the nation imported 24.6TWh, showing only a 0.8TWh or 3.25% increase to H1 2024.
