Capacity has increasingly become a hot-button issue for the UK power market. Now, faced with thinning reserve margins and the prospect of heavier reliance on intermittent renewable power, the UK government is planning to create a capacity market as part of its long-awaited Electricity Market Reform (EMR).

The capacity market is designed to incentivise investment in reliable peaking capacity, such as natural gas-fired plants, as well as demand response. Although initially unpopular, the proposals