Electricity Live

Daily record

Great Britain’s electricity on Thursday 20 August 2026

On Thursday 20 August 2026, gas supplied 30% of Great Britain’s electricity and wind 25%. Demand peaked at 33.5 GW at 16:50. Carbon intensity averaged 149 g/kWh and the price £146.16/MWh.

Key moments

  • Wind generation peaked at 9.3 GW at 18:50.
  • Solar generation peaked at 9.4 GW at 12:30.
  • Carbon intensity was lowest at 13:00 (79 g/kWh) and highest at 22:00 (199 g/kWh).
  • The wholesale price ranged from £131.01/MWh at 02:00 to £165.91/MWh at 06:30.
  • Gas made 35% of the electricity generated in Great Britain, compared with 28% across 2026 so far.

Charts

Generation, demand, price and carbon

Generation by sourceGW · daily average below
Solar 2.9910.2%Wind 7.1724.6%Gas 8.8830.4%Hydro 0.301.0%Biomass 1.806.2%Nuclear 4.3915.1%
Price£/MWh
Carbon intensitygCO₂/kWh
Demand and generationGW
Demand 27.6avgGeneration 25.5avgTransfers 2.0avg
The day in figurespeaks, averages, totals
Peak demand33.5GW · 16:50
Low 19.9 · 05:20Avg 27.60–40 GW
Made in Great Britain93%of demand
Generation 25.5Transfers 2.0 GW
Net imports51GWh
In
85 Out
34
Zero-carbon share58%of generation
Nuclear 17%Hydro 1%Wind 28%Solar 12%

Transfers · Thu 20 Aug

Interconnectors and storage

On Thursday 20 August 2026, Great Britain imported 85 GWh and exported 34 GWh through its interconnectors. The most came from France (37 GWh), and the most exports went to Ireland (12 GWh).

All interconnectors

Thu 20 Aug
Imported
85GWh
Exported
34GWh
Net in
51GWh
Average net flow
2.14GW in

Into Great BritainOut of Great Britain

Belgium

Nemo Link

Average0.14GWImporting

In 7.9 GWhOut 4.6 GWh

Denmark

Viking Link

Average0.17GWImporting

In 11.5 GWhOut 7.5 GWh

France

IFA · IFA2 · ElecLink

Average1.41GWImporting

In 36.5 GWhOut 2.7 GWh

Ireland

Moyle · East–West · Greenlink

Average0.51GWExporting

In 0.0 GWhOut 12.2 GWh

Netherlands

BritNed

Average0.10GWImporting

In 9.2 GWhOut 6.7 GWh

Norway

North Sea Link

Average0.82GWImporting

In 19.8 GWhOut 0.0 GWh

Pumped storage

Dinorwig · Cruachan · Ffestiniog · Foyers

Average0.09GWPumping

Generated 2.8 GWhPumped 5.0 GWh

All cards share one scale, so you can compare their heights. Each country can have more than one cable.

Download the 5-minute data for this day: CSV · JSON. See what the figures mean.