The wind power generation record in Britain was once again broken on Saturday (29 January), as Storm Malik hit the country.
Generation from wind power hit 19.5GW in the early hours of Saturday, breaking the previous record of 17.7GW set on 25 May 2021.
National Grid ESO announced the record on Twitter, writing: “Although we recognise this milestone on the way to a #zerocarbon future, we’re also thinking of those affected by Storm Malik.”
According to the Energy Networks Association, the storm left 222,000 households without power. Of these, 177,000 have had their electricity restored already.
In similar statistics, Aurora Energy Research reported that wind generated tipped just over 20GW on Saturday, contributing 81% of the country’s electricity generation – itself a new record. The company highlighted the dramatic variation between this contribution and the level of wind generation just last Monday (24 January), when at 2GW it generated just 4% of the mix.
During this period the system was very tight, leading to system prices to tip over £4,000/MWh several times.
The new high follows a record breaking period for wind generation at the beginning of 2021 as well, as storms battered Britain. This included the Beast from the East 2 pushing generation up to 17.5GW in February.
Similarly in 2020, gales brought about by Storm Francis pushed wind power to produce 59.9% of the country’s electricity at 1.30am on 26 August when wind was producing 14.2GW.
