Snapshot - 22 September 2026
Wholesale energy markets split sharply at the start of the week. Gas contracts fell hard across the curve, with UK winter pricing losing close to 8 per cent as traders positioned for possible US-Iran discussions at the UN General Assembly and forecasters revised temperatures higher. Front-season gas is now trading roughly 20p/therm below where it peaked in the middle of September, and the selling has carried into this morning.
Power told a different story at the prompt. Day-ahead baseload settled in the high £190s/MWh, up from the high £20s on Friday, after wind generation fell by around two thirds over the weekend and nuclear availability dropped to under half the fleet. Gas-fired plant carried the load and the system cleared above £230/MWh through much of the middle of the day, with no negative periods at all. Forward power, by contrast, followed gas lower, with winter and front-quarter contracts each shedding around £11/MWh.
The wider complex offered no support. Crude fell over 3 per cent on diplomacy hopes, coal drifted lower and carbon eased in both schemes, with UK allowances underperforming European ones and widening their discount. Sterling was broadly unchanged. Conditions remain volatile in both directions: the physical picture on the Norwegian side is genuinely tight, but sentiment is currently doing the pricing.
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