Live data · Great Britain
See how Britain is generating electricity
Demand, generation by fuel, imports and carbon intensity in one half-hour view.
Contains BMRS data © Elexon Limited copyright and database right 2026. Carbon intensity from the National Energy System Operator and the University of Oxford, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Demand and interconnector data from NESO under the NESO Open Data Licence.
Live electricity data status
Partial- Content period:
- Half-hour ending 05/11/2026, 14:00
- Last successful retrieval:
The available figures are incomplete and are shown only with that limitation made explicit.
Great Britain
Latest half-hour
Half-hour ending · 7 minutes old
Last complete half-hour
Ending · 37 minutes old
- Demand
- 36,128 MW
- Carbon
- 182 gCO₂/kWh
- Market
- £204.1/MWh
- System price
- £250.0/MWh
35,806 MW
National demand · actual
39,329 MW
Metered plus estimated embedded
40.0%
Share of GB generation, not imports
Not available
Actual national intensity
1,577 MW
Positive means electricity entering GB
£203.4/MWh
Provisional MID indicator, not a supplier purchase price
What stands out right now
One thing is unusual about this half-hour
Wholesale electricity is expensive right now, at £203 per MWh.
Prices at this level mean the system is having to call on its costlier plant. This is a short-term market indicator rather than what any supplier paid, and it reaches a capped or fixed tariff slowly, if at all.
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
- Gas (CCGT)18,055 MW45.9%
- Metered wind8,027 MW20.4%
- Nuclear5,125 MW13.0%
- Biomass3,270 MW8.3%
- Embedded solar (estimated)2,544 MW6.5%
- Embedded wind (estimated)1,344 MW3.4%
- Hydro541 MW1.4%
- Other425 MW1.1%
- Gas (OCGT)6 MW0.0%
- Oil0 MW0.0%
- Coal0 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 · Netherlands0 MWImporting
- East–West529 MWExporting
- ElecLink · France266 MWImporting
- Greenlink514 MWExporting
- IFA · France67 MWImporting
- IFA2 · France92 MWImporting
- Moyle250 MWExporting
- Nemo Link · Belgium418 MWImporting
- North Sea Link · Norway1,371 MWImporting
- Viking Link · Denmark657 MWImporting
Declared position · not metered
Battery storage
5 Nov 2026, 14:00 GMT · 121 of 124 units
The fleet is currently discharging. Batteries charge when power is cheap and plentiful, and discharge into the evening peak.
- Discharging
- 1,002 MW
- Charging
- 28 MW
- Net
- 973 MW
- Registered capacity
- 6,896 MW
Across the last 48 half hours the fleet peaked at 1,600 MW charging and 2,738 MW discharging.
Elexon publishes no battery fuel type, so these figures are built from physical notifications — the position each operator declared for the half hour — aggregated over 124 balancing-mechanism units identified as batteries. They are a declared intention rather than a meter reading, and are deliberately excluded from the generation mix above. This covers batteries registered in the balancing mechanism, not every grid-scale battery in Great Britain: capacity that is not registered, or that trades through an aggregator unit, sits outside the figures on this panel.
Half-hour history
5 November 2026
28 of 48 intervals
Demand and generation
Same MW scale; generation includes estimated embedded wind and solar.
Carbon intensity
Actual and forecast remain separate on one gCO₂/kWh scale.
Short-term and system prices
Provisional £/MWh indicators. MID is not the price every supplier paid.
View exact half-hour figures
| Interval | Demand | Generation | Carbon actual | Carbon forecast | Market index | System buy | System sell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,313 MW | 28,957 MW | 144 gCO₂/kWh | 152 gCO₂/kWh | £156.4/MWh | £149.0/MWh | £149.0/MWh | |
| 26,459 MW | 28,875 MW | 142 gCO₂/kWh | 156 gCO₂/kWh | £158.7/MWh | £212.9/MWh | £212.9/MWh | |
| 25,756 MW | 28,734 MW | 136 gCO₂/kWh | 131 gCO₂/kWh | £168.7/MWh | £212.9/MWh | £212.9/MWh | |
| 25,688 MW | 28,565 MW | 136 gCO₂/kWh | 131 gCO₂/kWh | £155.8/MWh | £148.1/MWh | £148.1/MWh | |
| 24,971 MW | 28,553 MW | 132 gCO₂/kWh | 125 gCO₂/kWh | £157.3/MWh | £148.1/MWh | £148.1/MWh | |
| 24,706 MW | 28,357 MW | 129 gCO₂/kWh | 131 gCO₂/kWh | £157.3/MWh | £148.2/MWh | £148.2/MWh | |
| 23,743 MW | 28,054 MW | 124 gCO₂/kWh | 128 gCO₂/kWh | £152.9/MWh | £146.0/MWh | £146.0/MWh | |
| 23,284 MW | 28,000 MW | 126 gCO₂/kWh | 124 gCO₂/kWh | £151.4/MWh | £146.0/MWh | £146.0/MWh | |
| 23,086 MW | 28,552 MW | 127 gCO₂/kWh | 123 gCO₂/kWh | £152.2/MWh | £124.5/MWh | £124.5/MWh | |
| 22,776 MW | 28,388 MW | 135 gCO₂/kWh | 120 gCO₂/kWh | £151.6/MWh | £136.1/MWh | £136.1/MWh | |
| 22,831 MW | 29,389 MW | 142 gCO₂/kWh | 133 gCO₂/kWh | £153.0/MWh | £142.4/MWh | £142.4/MWh | |
| 23,623 MW | 30,147 MW | 154 gCO₂/kWh | 144 gCO₂/kWh | £151.9/MWh | £151.9/MWh | £151.9/MWh | |
| 26,127 MW | 31,787 MW | 164 gCO₂/kWh | 168 gCO₂/kWh | £160.5/MWh | £147.0/MWh | £147.0/MWh | |
| 28,466 MW | 34,320 MW | 173 gCO₂/kWh | 174 gCO₂/kWh | £177.8/MWh | £222.5/MWh | £222.5/MWh | |
| 30,815 MW | 36,816 MW | 179 gCO₂/kWh | 180 gCO₂/kWh | £208.8/MWh | £253.8/MWh | £253.8/MWh | |
| 32,201 MW | 38,530 MW | 178 gCO₂/kWh | 178 gCO₂/kWh | £213.1/MWh | £250.0/MWh | £250.0/MWh | |
| 34,089 MW | 38,853 MW | 175 gCO₂/kWh | 178 gCO₂/kWh | £201.9/MWh | £164.0/MWh | £164.0/MWh | |
| 34,550 MW | 38,961 MW | 174 gCO₂/kWh | 177 gCO₂/kWh | £195.3/MWh | £163.2/MWh | £163.2/MWh | |
| 35,312 MW | 39,338 MW | 181 gCO₂/kWh | 174 gCO₂/kWh | £167.6/MWh | £207.3/MWh | £207.3/MWh | |
| 35,198 MW | 37,945 MW | 178 gCO₂/kWh | 174 gCO₂/kWh | £164.8/MWh | £250.0/MWh | £250.0/MWh | |
| 34,976 MW | 37,946 MW | 170 gCO₂/kWh | 172 gCO₂/kWh | £171.6/MWh | £245.0/MWh | £245.0/MWh | |
| 35,036 MW | 39,445 MW | 166 gCO₂/kWh | 177 gCO₂/kWh | £181.1/MWh | £245.0/MWh | £245.0/MWh | |
| 36,061 MW | 39,028 MW | 169 gCO₂/kWh | 169 gCO₂/kWh | £167.3/MWh | £153.1/MWh | £153.1/MWh | |
| 36,005 MW | 39,091 MW | 172 gCO₂/kWh | 162 gCO₂/kWh | £174.0/MWh | £249.9/MWh | £249.9/MWh | |
| 36,395 MW | 39,001 MW | 172 gCO₂/kWh | 169 gCO₂/kWh | £175.1/MWh | £249.9/MWh | £249.9/MWh | |
| 36,016 MW | 38,766 MW | 178 gCO₂/kWh | 173 gCO₂/kWh | £185.9/MWh | £250.0/MWh | £250.0/MWh | |
| 36,128 MW | 39,394 MW | 182 gCO₂/kWh | 177 gCO₂/kWh | £204.1/MWh | £250.0/MWh | £250.0/MWh | |
| 35,806 MW | 39,329 MW | Not available | 178 gCO₂/kWh | £203.4/MWh | Not available | Not available |
391 days
Carbon intensity, day by day
Each bar spans the cleanest and dirtiest half hour of its day; the line is the daily mean. A day that averages 120 but ranges from 40 to 300 is a different day from one that held steady, and an average alone would not show it.
gCO₂/kWh. Only days that reconciled in full are drawn — 9 of 400 in this window are partly collected and are left out rather than plotted as a dip that did not happen.
Averages over time
How this compares with the recent record
Each figure is a mean over the complete half hours in its window. Intervals where a fuel or a flow was not published are excluded rather than counted as zero, so every period states how much of itself it is based on. These averages begin on 1 January 2019. The longer-term records below use a separate historical series.
Past day
47 of 48 half hours · 97.9% of the window · from 4 November 2026 · calculated
- Price
- £186.2/MWh
- Emissions
- 165 g/kWh
- Demand
- 31,586 MW
- Generation
- 35,737 MW
- Net imports
- -697 MW
Battery 556 MW discharging against 298 MW charging, over 48 half hours. Declared position, not metered, and not part of the mix below.
- Gas (CCGT)14,382 MW43.0%
- Metered wind9,450 MW28.3%
- Nuclear5,065 MW15.2%
- Biomass3,272 MW9.8%
- Other792 MW2.4%
- Hydro448 MW1.3%
- Gas (OCGT)4 MW0.0%
- Oil0 MW0.0%
- Coal0 MW0.0%
- Pumped storage-76 MW0.0%
Past week
335 of 336 half hours · 99.7% of the window · from 29 October 2026 · calculated
- Price
- £204.9/MWh
- Emissions
- 172 g/kWh
- Demand
- 29,131 MW
- Generation
- 32,000 MW
- Net imports
- 632 MW
Battery 549 MW discharging against 315 MW charging, over 336 half hours. Declared position, not metered, and not part of the mix below.
- Gas (CCGT)13,241 MW44.5%
- Metered wind6,711 MW22.5%
- Nuclear5,111 MW17.2%
- Biomass3,288 MW11.0%
- Other820 MW2.8%
- Hydro609 MW2.0%
- Gas (OCGT)5 MW0.0%
- Oil0 MW0.0%
- Coal0 MW0.0%
- Pumped storage-83 MW0.0%
Past year
17,519 of 17,520 half hours · 100.0% of the window · from 5 November 2025 · calculated
- Price
- £103.9/MWh
- Emissions
- 123 g/kWh
- Demand
- 26,108 MW
- Generation
- 28,612 MW
- Net imports
- 2,911 MW
Battery 466 MW discharging against 361 MW charging, over 4,485 half hours. Declared position, not metered, and not part of the mix below.
- Metered wind8,713 MW35.8%
- Gas (CCGT)8,209 MW33.7%
- Nuclear3,862 MW15.9%
- Biomass2,361 MW9.7%
- Other721 MW3.0%
- Hydro438 MW1.8%
- Gas (OCGT)23 MW0.1%
- Oil0 MW0.0%
- Coal0 MW0.0%
- Pumped storage-59 MW0.0%
Whole stored recordsince 1 January 2019
136,036 of 137,548 half hours · 98.9% of the window · from 1 January 2019 · calculated
- Price
- £92.9/MWh
- Emissions
- 162 g/kWh
- Demand
- 26,898 MW
- Generation
- 28,692 MW
- Net imports
- 2,444 MW
Battery 466 MW discharging against 361 MW charging, over 4,485 half hours. Declared position, not metered, and not part of the mix below.
- Gas (CCGT)10,498 MW41.6%
- Metered wind6,851 MW27.2%
- Nuclear4,755 MW18.9%
- Biomass2,010 MW8.0%
- Hydro401 MW1.6%
- Coal343 MW1.4%
- Other334 MW1.3%
- Gas (OCGT)21 MW0.1%
- Oil0 MW0.0%
- Pumped storage-61 MW0.0%
Since January 2009
Records
- Most wind
- 23.88 GW
- 25 March 2026
- Most solar
- 16.29 GW
- 23 April 2026
- Cleanest half hour
- 19 g/kWh
- 15 April 2024
When British wind first reached
| Output | First reached | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 23.00 GW | 5 December 2025 | 23,070 MW |
| 22.00 GW | 15 December 2024 | 22,061 MW |
| 21.00 GW | 10 January 2023 | 21,001 MW |
| 20.00 GW | 2 November 2022 | 20,304 MW |
| 18.00 GW | 28 March 2021 | 18,008 MW |
| 15.00 GW | 18 December 2018 | 15,000 MW |
| 10.00 GW | 23 December 2016 | 10,040 MW |
| 5.00 GW | 7 November 2012 | 5,031 MW |
Levels not yet reached are absent rather than listed as pending, so this table never advertises a record that has not happened.
NESO Historic GB Generation Mix, 312,816 half hours from 1 January 2009. Half-hourly from January 2009. Wind is metered plus embedded generation; a metered-only series peaks at 18.4 GW and would not carry these figures. This is NESO’s published series rather than the shorter half-hourly figures shown above, because only it reaches back far enough for a record to mean anything. Last calculated .
Margin notices
When the system has been tight
A call from the system operator for more generation to be offered into the market for a particular set of half hours. It is a margin signal, not a blackout warning and not a power cut: the great majority are answered by the market and cancelled.
- Distinct margin periods since 23 Aug 2025, 13:40
- 8
- Of those, stood down
- 6
- Other operating notices
- 514
NESO published 17 issue or update rows for these 8 periods. Updates to the same stated period are not counted as new notices.
Most transmission system warnings are routine operating notices - interconnector trade notifications and IT system outages - and say nothing about whether the system is tight. They are counted here only so the margin figure has a denominator.
The most recent was issued 6 Oct 2026, 14:16, and the most recent stand-down was 6 Oct 2026, 15:51.
- 6 Oct 2026, 15:51stood down
- 6 Oct 2026, 14:16notice issued
- 6 Oct 2026, 12:53notice issued
- 6 Oct 2026, 06:45notice issued
- 5 Oct 2026, 23:59notice issued
- 28 Sept 2026, 15:02stood down
- 28 Sept 2026, 12:00notice issued
- 28 Sept 2026, 00:26notice issued
- 12 Aug 2026, 12:57stood down
- 12 Aug 2026, 07:21notice issued
- 11 Aug 2026, 22:34notice issued
- 11 Aug 2026, 22:30notice issued
- 9 Jul 2026, 19:30stood down
- 9 Jul 2026, 13:49notice issued
- 9 Jul 2026, 09:28notice issued
- 8 Jul 2026, 21:31notice issued
- 26 Jun 2026, 21:41stood down
- 26 Jun 2026, 14:45notice issued
- 26 Jun 2026, 09:40notice issued
- 26 Jun 2026, 00:30notice issued
- 24 Jun 2026, 14:20stood down
- 24 Jun 2026, 08:10notice issued
- 23 Jun 2026, 22:04notice issued
Source: Elexon Limited — System warnings (SYSWARN) · BMRS open data licence · checked 5 Nov 2026, 13:56
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.
