Two power stations earn £12m for three hours of electricity

Two gas power station owners were to be paid more than £12m to supply just three hours of electricity yesterday evening after freezing weather led to some of the highest market prices since the energy crisis began.

- Jillian Ambrose

Britain faced surging power prices after the grid operator warned it would need power plants to fire up in the early evening to have enough electricity to power homes and businesses within its normal safety limits.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) - which manages the energy grid in England, Scotland and Wales - said it faced a shortfall of about 1,700 megawatts (MW), roughly the equivalent of the amount of electricity needed to power about 850,000 homes.

The electricity supply squeeze is expected to hand a windfall to the owners of two power plants in Hertfordshire and Flintshire, which will each be paid more than £6m to have run gas turbines between 4pm and 7pm, when demand for electricity was forecast to reach its peak.

The German utility Uniper and a subsidiary of the Swiss commodities firm Vitol offered to fire up their gas plants in the evening in exchange for "super-high" payouts of more than 50 times the market price earlier this week, according to experts.