Belgium saved London from last Wednesday’s blackout: Britons paid a record price

That Wednesday, rising demand for electricity hit a bottleneck in Britain’s power grid, leaving eastern parts of the British capital at risk of losing power. Bloomberg writes that only by importing energy from our country, via the Nemo link, can blackouts be avoided. The British had to pay a record price of £9724.54 (converted around €11,424.9) per megawatt-hour for it. This is the highest amount ever for electricity imports into the UK, it seems, and about five times the previous record amount. By comparison, Britons paid an average of £178 per megawatt-hour last year.

Electricity was imported between 12 noon and 1 pm. It would have been only a small amount, but it is enough to keep the light. The price paid shows the desperation that prevailed at the time, according to Bloomberg, with imports from across the channel being the only option. A spokesman for the British network said: “Had Belgium not come to the rescue, the network operator would have been obligated to send the request and separate the homes.”