Prices rise as Russian drones suspected of breaching Polish airspace
NBP gas prices rose in yesterday’s session after reports of drones breaching Polish airspace during a Russian strike on Ukraine.
Poland claims 19 ‘objects’ breached its borders, 7 drones have been found so far, as well as debris from a missile, according to Poland’s interior ministry.
In response, Poland, along with NATO allies Italy and the Netherlands, scrambled jets to intercept the drones and invoked Article 4 of the NATO Treaty for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering a meeting of NATO’s top decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council.
Russia has denied the allegations, and with no further escalation, markets eased off later in the afternoon.
Strong winds boosted renewable generation on Wednesday, with yesterday’s average wind output reaching its highest levels since March – more than doubling from the previous day to 16.6GW.
This accounted for 51.1% of the GB power mix, significantly reducing reliance on Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGT), which fell sharply to just 3.6GW (11%).
The recent surge in renewable output has helped curb gas-for-power demand in recent days, a welcome development amid ongoing high levels of maintenance in Norway, which continue to tighten the regional supply-demand balance for gas.
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Price commentary courtesy of Crown Gas and Power 