$230/boe ? Wow ! Excellent. That will teach a good lesson to CCGT operators if they need to go on the spot market (vs. long term contracts).

The conclusion of the article in the Guardian is a fun read too.

The inability of traders to obtain new gas in Europe will infuriate British politicians and give further ammunition to the European commission which last week called for faster deregulation of continental markets. A lack of transparency means it has been hard to discover exactly where the bottlenecks are and why suppliers on the continent are not switching gas to Britain. Yesterday the spot price of gas in the Netherlands had reached 70p per therm [vs 250p/th in the UK ]. But the Interconnector pipeline to Britain was handling only 8m cubic metres, when it could handle 16m.

Mmmm. I wonder why? Mmmm. Like, because French and Dutch infrastructures and reserves are not for the British to use when they feel like it ? Like, because you gotta pay if you wanna play ? Like, because the UK made choices assuming others would pick up the tab for the back-end plumbing and the continuity of service ?

The UK invested in gas-fired power plants (40% of the production) because it was the politically easy and economically "cheap" choice. Well, now they gonna have to assume their choice and take it like a man.