Wednesday 13 April 2011

Energy market still ‘volatile’

The energy market is still unsettled by the unpredictability of events in the Middle East and Japan.

A market report by npower also underlined how the impact of current events on nuclear was seen as a major concern by the industry.

Magali Hodgson, npower Optimisation Desk Manager said in the report: "The energy market remains volatile and is still trying to get to grips with all the current issues.

"The market is valuing issues like the Middle East, Japan, nuclear generation and the effect of carbon price on the curve and is reluctant to enter into a sell off as the future is too uncertain at the moment. The outcome will have an impact of European supplies."

The report also suggested that recent doubts over the future of nuclear power stations and the possibility of early closures are affecting the market.

Ms Hodgson said: "Uncertainty over the suggested EU nuclear stress tests are still ongoing. In Europe there are 28 nuclear power stations built before 1980, providing a maximum generation of around 19GW, which represent 11% of the total capacity. It is worth noting that the UK has 4GW of generation at risk."

She concluded that the outlook for the energy market was "flat to bullish" for the next couple of weeks.

Related story:

Watch our Market Report for 12 April with Magali Hodgson