UK power prices fluctuated wildly in September as a result of concerns over the future of troubled nuclear generator British Energy, the private energy firm that provides a quarter of the nation’s power supplies.

In mid-September, the winter 2002 base-load contract jumped to a four-month high of £18.20 ($28.20) per megawatt hour (MWh), before retreating to £17.67/MWh as reports suggested the UK government was set to extend an emergency loan facility it had given the company.

As EPRM went to