Great Britain's Electricity Explained

What happened in February?

February saw the record-breaking trends from last year extend into 2021, with the outright wind record from December broken multiple times over the course of a couple of days.

The blustery weather introduced by Storm Darcy in the first week of February persisted to the middle of the month, and on Saturday 13th at 10.30am we saw wind generation power to just over 17.5GW – a new all-time high.

Wind went on to deliver over a quarter of Britain’s electricity last month – second only to gas in the mix, which helped us to secure the system during cold spells and periods with lower wind.

Carbon intensity on the electricity system so far this year is almost exactly the same as in 2020, a positive start and good news for Britain’s bid to continue reducing emissions and meet future net zero targets.

The reduced demand for electricity we’ve seen as a result of the third lockdown has remained steady at around 5% below what we’d ordinarily expect at this time of year.

As ever, our control room experts are keeping a close eye on any changes in the weeks and months ahead, and are continuing to work around the clock to operate the system securely and keep Britain’s lights on.

For more insight and data, you can follow the country’s electricity mix live in our app.