Britain Asks France for Up to 1,200 MW of Emergency Power After an Asset Return Slips

Great Britain's National Energy System Operator requested as much as 1,200 MW of emergency assistance from France through an undersea interconnector on the evening of Monday 12 October, after the delayed return to service of a power-system asset reduced available capacity that afternoon, Bloomberg reported on 13 October. The event lasted just over an hour, until about 6 pm.

NESO said on X that emergency assistance is a formal operational tool for when immediate action is needed to maintain system security. “Electricity supplies remained secure throughout and there was no interruption to customers,” it wrote.

By Bloomberg's analysis of NESO data, it was the largest such request since at least 2024 and the biggest of at least four this year. In June, when grid frequency stayed outside normal operating levels for an unusually long time while Britain was exporting, NESO asked for 500 MW. Since then the operator has leaned more on day-ahead restrictions of interconnector flows. Monday's action used a separate tool that secures power at a few minutes' notice.

The market has been tight for the season. European gas prices are at their highest since December 2022 with the Iran war continuing, and Shivam Malhotra, head of power trading at LCP Delta, told Bloomberg the past couple of months had combined high gas prices with very windy, and therefore constrained, conditions. Interconnectors to France and Belgium land power in the south of England, close to demand, while much of Britain's wind fleet sits in Scotland or offshore.