UK - American Electric Power (AEP) said current British electricity prices justified running its UK power stations, but it had not ruled out temporary closures of the plants if prices weakened.
Energy experts have speculated that AEP would temporarily shut the two coal-fired plants at Ferrybridge and Fiddlers Ferry, until prices start to recover.
"The plants are cash-flow positive at current prices, and as long as that is the case, we will run them," a spokesman for AEP said. "That doesn¹t mean we have made a commitment to run for the rest of the year. Market conditions could change." UK wholesale power prices have fallen 40 per cent since 1998 because of increased competition in generation, squeezing profits at most power stations.
In addition, AEP has pulled its prices from the UK trading platform of Web-based energy bourse Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) because of low liquidity.
"Liquidity has dried up to the point that ours were the only prices quoted," a spokesman said, adding that the risks of being the only market-maker were too great. AEP said it would continue to monitor market conditions and could resume its market-making role in the future.
A spokeswoman for ICE refused to comment on AEP or the status of the market, but traders said that AEP¹s retreat had left ICE’s UK power screens void of prices.
AEP pulled its prices once before, citing "contractual issues" with ICE, but later resolved its differences with the bourse and started quoting markets again.