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Energy Review

Data preview · Great Britain only

See how Britain is generating electricity

Demand, generation by fuel, imports and carbon intensity reconciled into one transparent half-hour view.

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Great Britain

Latest half-hour

Latest interval incomplete

Half-hour ending · 19 minutes old

Last complete half-hour

Ending · 49 minutes old

Demand
19,314 MW
Carbon
44 gCO₂/kWh
Market
£12.0/MWh
System price
£12.0/MWh
Demand

18,552 MW

National demand · actual

Generation

30,998 MW

Metered plus estimated embedded

Renewables

84.6%

Share of GB generation, not imports

Carbon intensity

Not available

Actual national intensity

Net import

2,285 MW

Positive means electricity entering GB

Short-term market

£11.9/MWh

Provisional MID indicator, not a supplier purchase price

Metered fuel generation is actual. Embedded wind and solar are modelled estimates, so totals combining them are labelled mixed. Imports are excluded from renewable, fossil and low-carbon shares. Market and imbalance prices are provisional and can be revised at D+1.

What stands out right now

2 things are unusual about this half-hour

  • Wind is supplying about 49.7% of Great Britain's electricity.

    At 15.4 GW, wind is displacing gas that would otherwise be running. Wind has effectively no fuel cost, so a windy period usually means lower wholesale prices.

  • Solar is supplying about 31% of the mix.

    At 9.6 GW, solar is doing a substantial share of the work. Most of it sits on rooftops and small ground-mounted sites rather than on the transmission system, so it shows up as demand that never appears rather than as metered generation.

These notes are generated from the figures on this page by fixed rules, with a stated threshold behind each one. They are not written or checked by an editor before publication, and nothing appears here unless the underlying measurement was actually reported. Not currently available: carbon intensity — so nothing is said about it.

Latest interval

Generation by source

Generation only · imports excluded

  • Metered wind11,715 MW37.8%
  • Embedded solar (estimated)9,601 MW31.0%
  • Nuclear3,950 MW12.7%
  • Embedded wind (estimated)3,685 MW11.9%
  • Gas (CCGT)1,452 MW4.7%
  • Biomass1,179 MW3.8%
  • Other585 MW1.9%
  • Hydro60 MW0.2%
  • Oil0 MW0.0%
  • Coal0 MW0.0%
  • Gas (OCGT)0 MW0.0%

Biomass is counted as renewable under the current calculation policy. Pumped storage is shown as output, not primary generation.

Cross-border power

Interconnector flows

Positive values are imports into Great Britain. Negative values are exports from Great Britain.

  • BritNed · Netherlands1,026 MWImporting
  • East–West531 MWExporting
  • ElecLink · France323 MWImporting
  • Greenlink514 MWExporting
  • IFA · France1,371 MWImporting
  • IFA2 · France336 MWImporting
  • Moyle452 MWExporting
  • Nemo Link · Belgium545 MWImporting
  • North Sea Link · Norway1,239 MWExporting
  • Viking Link · Denmark1,422 MWImporting

Half-hour history

5 August 2026

19 of 48 intervals

This day is incomplete: 29 intervals are missing and 7 returned intervals are partial. Lines stop where source values are unavailable.

Demand and generation

Same MW scale; generation includes estimated embedded wind and solar.

National demandGeneration

Carbon intensity

Actual and forecast remain separate on one gCO₂/kWh scale.

ActualForecast

Short-term and system prices

Provisional £/MWh indicators. MID is not the price every supplier paid.

Market indexSystem buySystem sell
View exact half-hour figures
Exact half-hour demand, generation, carbon intensity and price figures
IntervalDemandGenerationCarbon actualCarbon forecastMarket indexSystem buySystem sell
19,167 MW23,234 MW55 gCO₂/kWh66 gCO₂/kWh£125.5/MWh£95.1/MWh£95.1/MWh
19,132 MW23,543 MW55 gCO₂/kWh65 gCO₂/kWh£118.3/MWh£92.0/MWh£92.0/MWh
18,981 MW23,944 MW57 gCO₂/kWh48 gCO₂/kWh£118.9/MWh£89.0/MWh£89.0/MWh
19,178 MWNot available56 gCO₂/kWh36 gCO₂/kWh£110.4/MWh£93.0/MWh£93.0/MWh
20,703 MWNot available59 gCO₂/kWh54 gCO₂/kWh£98.2/MWh£89.1/MWh£89.1/MWh
21,334 MWNot available58 gCO₂/kWh55 gCO₂/kWh£100.2/MWh£100.2/MWh£100.2/MWh
22,640 MWNot available56 gCO₂/kWh52 gCO₂/kWh£97.2/MWh£85.0/MWh£85.0/MWh
23,102 MWNot available60 gCO₂/kWh49 gCO₂/kWh£101.3/MWh£101.3/MWh£101.3/MWh
23,417 MWNot available60 gCO₂/kWh48 gCO₂/kWh£99.1/MWh£145.0/MWh£145.0/MWh
23,075 MW27,974 MW57 gCO₂/kWh47 gCO₂/kWh£107.9/MWh£159.0/MWh£159.0/MWh
23,157 MW27,480 MW54 gCO₂/kWh47 gCO₂/kWh£48.4/MWh£145.0/MWh£145.0/MWh
22,059 MW27,702 MW50 gCO₂/kWh46 gCO₂/kWh£64.5/MWh£145.0/MWh£145.0/MWh
21,563 MW27,934 MW49 gCO₂/kWh46 gCO₂/kWh£55.5/MWh£55.5/MWh£55.5/MWh
21,022 MW28,720 MW47 gCO₂/kWh45 gCO₂/kWh£37.4/MWh£37.4/MWh£37.4/MWh
20,342 MW28,967 MW46 gCO₂/kWh43 gCO₂/kWh£26.8/MWh£3.0/MWh£3.0/MWh
19,825 MW29,388 MW47 gCO₂/kWh43 gCO₂/kWh£20.9/MWh£2.7/MWh£2.7/MWh
19,649 MW29,669 MW45 gCO₂/kWh42 gCO₂/kWh£15.3/MWh£-10.4/MWh£-10.4/MWh
19,314 MW30,286 MW44 gCO₂/kWh42 gCO₂/kWh£12.0/MWh£12.0/MWh£12.0/MWh
18,552 MW30,998 MWNot available40 gCO₂/kWh£11.9/MWhNot availableNot available

Trace every figure

Sources and licences

Energy Review reconciles these official datasets but does not alter missing values or blend actuals with forecasts. A source marked “used” contributed to the interval above.

  • Elexon Limited

    Initial National and Transmission System Demand Outturn

    Used
    DatasetLicence

    Contains BMRS data © Elexon Limited copyright and database right 2026.

    Last checked

  • Elexon Limited

    Generation outturn summary by fuel type

    Used
    DatasetLicence

    Contains BMRS data © Elexon Limited copyright and database right 2026.

    Last checked

  • Elexon Limited

    Market Index Data (MID)

    Used
    DatasetLicence

    Contains BMRS data © Elexon Limited copyright and database right 2026.

    Last checked

  • Elexon Limited

    Indicative System Buy and Sell Prices (DISEBSP)

    Used
    DatasetLicence

    Contains BMRS data © Elexon Limited copyright and database right 2026.

    Last checked

  • National Energy System Operator

    Carbon Intensity API — national intensity

    Used
    DatasetLicence

    Contains Carbon Intensity API data from National Energy System Operator, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

    Last checked

  • National Energy System Operator

    Demand Data Update

    Used
    DatasetLicence

    Supported by National Energy SO Open Data

    Last checked

How to read these figures

MW is power. It describes the rate of demand or generation during an interval.

MWh is energy. One half-hour at a steady 1 MW is 0.5 MWh.

Imports are not a fuel. They balance supply and demand but are excluded from generation shares because their source mix is not known here.

Read the full Energy Review methodology.