The UK power and gas prices have extended their losses this morning, according to npower’s daily market report.

That’s despite a short gas system and a tight peak power margin.

On the gas system, the linepack is forecast to close 7mcm short as demand continues to be “significantly” above average for this time of the year.

That’s driven by “colder temperatures today and high levels of gas fired generation online”, according to Gemma Bruce from the Optimisation Desk.

The Langeled pipeline is flowing at 60mcm while flows from the Netherlands are at 24mcm.

The UK Interconnector is importing at 9mcm.

Ms Bruce added: “Storage withdrawals are helping to cover some of the increased demand but we are likely to see further medium range storage sites step in across the day in order to bring balance to the system.”

On the power system, peak margins are at 5.2GW.

Wind is generating at 2.9GW and is expected to reach 7GW today.

Ms Bruce went on: “The French and Dutch interconnectors are both in export mode this morning with the French interconnector expected to remain exporting for the balance of the day. This has seen gas fired generation ramp up to cover the shortfall and is currently contributing 45% to the power stack.”

Brent oil is trading at £27 (£18.3) per barrel.