New provisional statistics from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ reveal that total electricity supplied by Major Power Producers (MPPs) in the UK fell by 12.7% between September and November 2023.
The data was released on 25 January following the inclusion of provisional statistics for November 2023.
Low carbon MPP generators supplied 4.3% less (34.8TWh) electricity during this period than in 2022, due to a fall in wind (10% decrease to 18.9TWh) and nuclear (1% decrease to 9.4TWh) production. In contrast, bioenergy saw a 13% rise to 4..4TWh, which DESNZ attributed to “fewer outages to key sites” resulting in November seeing “the largest supply from bioenergy in nearly two years.”
Solar also experienced an increase in production in the three months to November 2023 jumping 9.8% to 0.9TWh. the similar average in sunlight hours compared to the same period in 2022 means this increase reflects an increase in solar capacity
In total, electricity generation by UK MPP supply came to 59.8 TWh between September and November 2023, representing a 12% year-on-year decrease. This saw the UK become a net importer, receiving 5.1TWh across these three months, a contrast to the same period in 2022 where the UK was a net exporter to support our neighbours during the French nuclear outages.
On the other hand, total electricity available, increased by 2.2% to 69.5TWh, matching the 2.2% demand-increase for the same period.
A fall in fossil fuels
MPP fossil fuel generation fell by 23% in the three months to November, dropping to 22.5TWh, meaning that fossil fuels share of total MPP supply also dropped by 5.3% to 39%.
In this, coal supply saw the biggest decrease of 27% to 1.2TWh, representing only 2.1% of the total MPP supply. Gas-fired supply, although still holding the majority of MPP supply, also fell by 25% to 21.2TWh.
