The gas system opened largely undersupplied this morning, being 22mcm short, according to npower’s daily market report.

This is as Norwegian flows are cut by 6.5mcm amid an outage at Gullfaks oil field. St Fergus flows are also down by 10mcm and demand is higher on the back of cold temperatures.

On the power system, the peak margin is “very healthy” above 13GW.

One of the reasons is the very high wind generation at 3.3GW “which is a bit behind latest forecast but still helping to reduce pressure on CCGTs providing 40%”, said Nicholas Morgan from the Optimisation Desk.

The French and Dutch interconnectors are importing close to capacity.

Mr Morgan added: “While UK National Grid recently set a 53.8GW amount of required generation capacity to secure during winter 2017/18, Timera Energy assumes government will have to boost support to the fleet of coal-fired plants to avoid them leaving the grid before end of the decade.

“Elsewhere Brent oil prices are looking firmer this morning as the dollar is dropping. Also the announcement of the new UK’s Prime Minister is supporting the pound, now trading 1.181 against the euro.”