The National Grid has forecasted its “lowest ever” peak level demand this summer and said the increase in the UK’s solar PV generation capacity has contributed to it.
The National Grid’s summer outlook – published today – has estimated that its peak demand this summer will be 37.5GW, approximately 900MW lower than the corresponding figure last year.
This drop has been attributed to a marked increase in solar PV generation capacity within the UK, which National Grid says has risen from 2.4GW in February 2014 to 4.4GW in February this year.
The report owed this drop in peak demand to how the period of peak summer demand – typically between midday and the afternoon – coincided with increased generation from embedded solar installations.
And the report also forecasted that summer peak demand will continue to drop in the coming years as additional solar generation capacity is connected to the grid.
The National Grid has estimated that solar PV generation capacity will reach 5.5GW by February 2016, equivalent to an added 90MW of capacity per month for the next year.
The report comes little more than a week after the Department for Energy and Climate Change said that solar PV generation in the UK soared 93% throughout 2014 and reached 3.9TWh, more than 6% of the UK’s total renewable energy generation in 2014.