# Britain Paid Gas Plants About £1,500 per MWh as Wind Output Stayed Low

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/54813
Published: 2026-11-12T02:29:29.000Z
Updated: 2026-11-12T02:29:29.000Z
Section: Business

> Langage’s 90-minute payment totaled about £2.1 million at an hourly equivalent of roughly £1.4 million. Neso later withdrew a separate reserve-margin notice.

Britain’s National Energy System Operator (Neso) paid at least three gas plants about £1,500 per megawatt-hour Nov. 9 to cover the evening peak as low wind output persisted.

Langage near Plymouth, Rye House in Hertfordshire and Seabank near Bristol received similar sums from 10:30 a.m. to noon ET (15:30-17:00 UTC). The rate at Langage equated to about £1.4 million an hour. At that rate, 90 minutes at the plant would amount to about £2.1 million.

Separately, Neso issued an electricity margin notice at 2:17 p.m. ET Sunday (19:17 UTC) for 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. ET Monday (06:00-11:00 UTC). It flagged a 1,388-megawatt shortfall against an 808-megawatt contingency requirement and asked generators to report any additional capacity they could provide.

Neso’s review at 11 p.m. ET Sunday (04:00 UTC Monday) lowered the projected shortfall to about 500 megawatts. The operator withdrew the notice Monday morning.

Neso called the notice “a routine and precautionary measure” and said, “This is not a warning of power cuts, there is no risk to customer electricity supplies.” It has issued seven electricity margin notices so far in 2026, compared with one in all of 2025. The number of such notices has fluctuated substantially year to year, and prior periods have seen similar use.