Snapshot - 18 September 2026
UK gas and power prices fell for a third straight session on Thursday, with the whole curve giving ground as the market continued to unwind the premium built up during the first half of September. Front-month and winter gas each lost around three pence, and winter gas has now shed roughly 6.5 per cent from the highs seen in the middle of the month. Far-dated contracts barely moved, which tells you the correction is about this winter specifically rather than a broader change of view. Prices had already begun to reverse by Friday morning, opening several pence higher across the board.
The day belonged to renewables. Wind alone supplied more than half of GB generation and total renewables reached almost three quarters, the highest level since May 2025. That pushed day-ahead power down sharply, produced negative system prices through the late morning, and left the day-ahead peak settling well below baseload, an unusual inversion driven by solar and wind rather than any weakness in demand. Forward power contracts fell across the board, with the first quarter of 2027 losing the most.
The supply background has not improved to match. A major Norwegian field outage deepened over the week and has been extended, UK storage remains under a third full with injection season nearly over, and European stocks sit well short of seasonal norms. Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is still largely halted and forecasts for global LNG supply this year have been cut materially. Elsewhere, crude eased for a third session as Saudi supply concerns receded, coal was quiet, and carbon moved the other way, with European allowances firmer while UK allowances lagged and the discount between them widened.
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