The government is seeking immediate State Aid approval from the European Commission to run a T-1 Capacity Market auction in the coming months to cover winter 2019/20.
The auction was due to start on 29 January 2019, but a European Court judgement last week set aside State Aid clearance for the Capacity Market. Without such clearance neither that auction, nor a T-4 auction (covering winter 2022/23) can go ahead. The T-4 auction was due to begin on 5 February 2019.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said that “Alongside this, we are working to reinstate the full Capacity Market regime and are discussing the swiftest means of doing so with the Commission.”
The ECJ decision also means that no Capacity Market payments can be made. But BEIS insisted there was no threat to supplies, saying: ”National Grid has confirmed that they do not believe the judgment will cause any risk to security of supply this winter”.
Further reading
Capacity Market ruling: the industry responds
From the archive: Sara Bell, Tempus Energy chief executive, talks to New Power