Britain pays more for power than most of Europe, and buys a tenth of it from abroad.

Wholesale power has got cheaper across Europe since the 2022 gas crisis, but less in Britain than anywhere its cables reach. British power now costs more than in every continental country at the other end of those cables, and a tenth of what Britain uses comes through them, most of it from France, which in 2022 was buying power from Britain. Earlier this month we reported how solar has made midday power cheap in Spain, and who gets paid for it. This report looks at the gap between Britain's price and its neighbours': why it exists, which way the power flows, and who earns the difference.

What we measured

We analysed hourly wholesale electricity prices in 44 bidding zones across 27 European countries, from 1 January 2022 to 20 October 2026, together with daily generation by source for each country and the hourly flows on each cable connecting Great Britain to its neighbours. Prices for continental Europe are day-ahead prices from the power exchanges via Energy-Charts. Great Britain's are Elexon's market index, converted from pounds at the European Central Bank's daily rate. 2026 figures cover the year to 20 October.

Britain's cables reach France, Belgium, the Netherlands, western Denmark, southern Norway and the island of Ireland. Where a neighbour has several price zones, we compare Britain with the zone the cable lands in.

For each country we add up the flows on all of its cables to Britain: IFA, IFA2 and ElecLink for France, and the East–West Interconnector and Greenlink for Ireland. The North Sea Link lands in the part of southern Norway that trades as its own price zone, so we use that zone's price for the cable, and Viking lands in western Denmark. The flows are physical: the power that actually crossed each cable in each hour.

We focus on three measures because together they show what Britain pays, how much of its power it buys abroad, and who earns on the power that crosses:

Wholesale price is the average price per megawatt-hour at which power was traded for delivery the next day. Suppliers and large businesses buy at this price before network charges and taxes are added.

Net imports are the power that came into Britain through its cables, minus the power that went out.

Gap value is each hour's net flow multiplied by the difference between the prices at the two ends of the cable, added up over the year. It estimates what the price difference on that power was worth; it is not anyone's booked revenue.

A neighbour can be cheaper than Britain on average and still not sell it power every hour. Belgium and the Netherlands are both cheaper on average, yet power often flows from Britain to them. That is why we look at the flows hour by hour as well as over the year.

Britain pays more than its neighbours

Britain pays more for power than every country its continental cables reach. Across Europe, only Italy, Switzerland, Austria and parts of Central and South-East Europe paid more this year.

It was not always so. In 2022, when gas prices peaked, Britain paid less than France, Germany and Belgium. Prices have fallen everywhere since, but Britain's by the least.

The gap is widest in the middle of the day, when Britain pays more than every market it is cabled to. In the evening the order changes: Belgium, the Netherlands and western Denmark pay more than Britain, and only France and southern Norway stay cheaper.

Midday prices fall where there is a lot of solar. Germany gets twice Britain's share of its power from the sun, and France and Germany have far more hours in which power costs nothing. Britain's cheapest hour of the day costs more than an average hour in France.

The gap with France moved through the year. It was widest in April and May and almost closed in September and October, when prices rose across the Continent, but Britain paid more than France in every month.

Britain's premium is not new. It paid more than every one of these neighbours in 2025 too, and its gap with France has widened since.

For a trader holding space on a cable from France, the midday gap is where the money is: every megawatt-hour moved into Britain at midday earns the difference between the two prices, less the cost of the space.

Britain burns less gas, but more than most of its neighbours

Britain has cut its use of gas sharply since 2022 and no longer burns coal: its last coal plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, closed in September 2024. Wind is now its largest source of power.

Gas matters because of how the price is set. In each hour, the most expensive plant needed to meet demand sets the price for all the power traded in that hour, and that is usually a gas plant. Countries that rarely need gas, such as France with its nuclear plants and Norway with its hydro dams, pay less.

Italy, which generates a larger share of its power from gas than any other country in our chart, paid the most in Europe.

A tenth of Britain's power now comes through cables

Britain bought far more power through its cables this year than it sold: about a tenth of everything it used. In 2022 it sold more than it bought.

Most of it came from France, which sent power to Britain in nine hours out of ten. Norway, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands supplied the rest, and power went the other way, out of Britain, to the island of Ireland.

Imports peak in the middle of the day, when power on the Continent is cheapest, and are smallest before dawn.

Each neighbour sells Britain power from a different source

France generates most of its power from nuclear plants and Norway from hydro dams, both of which cost little to run once built. Denmark generates most of its power from wind. Belgium and the Netherlands still burn gas, and Belgium has closed five of its seven nuclear reactors since 2022.

We cover the five neighbours whose prices are in our archive: France, Belgium, the Netherlands, western Denmark and southern Norway. Ireland and Northern Ireland form a single market of their own, which our archive does not cover, so for them we report only the flows. The chart below shows how each country generated its power this year.

France sells Britain cheap power because most of it comes from EDF's nuclear plants, which cost little to run, and it hardly burns gas. That makes France Britain's largest supplier by far, and the cables to France the most valuable of Britain's links. It depends on the reactors running: in 2022, when many of them were offline for repairs, French power cost more than British, and Britain sold power to France.

Norway runs almost entirely on hydro, and a hydro plant can hold its water back and sell when the price is highest, which in Britain means the evening. That makes the North Sea Link the only continental cable that carries more power into Britain in the evening than at midday. It carried less this year than last, because southern Norway's price rose towards Britain's and the gap between them narrowed.

Denmark runs mostly on wind and solar and sells Britain power through Viking Link, which opened at the end of 2023. In its third year, Viking already earns more on the price gap than the older cables to Belgium and the Netherlands.

Belgium and the Netherlands still burn more gas than Britain, so their power costs almost as much as Britain's. Belgium has shut five of its seven nuclear reactors since 2022, and its parliament repealed the nuclear phase-out only in May 2025. With so small a gap, their cables run both ways: into Britain at midday, and often out of Britain in the evening and before dawn.

Ireland is the one neighbour Britain sells to. It burns more gas than any of Britain's other neighbours, and power runs from Britain to Ireland and Northern Ireland in nearly nine hours out of ten. Our archive has no prices for the Irish market, so we cannot say what that trade is worth.

Hour by hour, the power follows the price. French power flows into Britain around the clock and most at midday, when the gap is widest. On the cables to Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, the flow turns round before dawn, when Britain's price drops below theirs. Norway sends most in the evening, when Britain's price peaks.

Britain imports most at midday, except from Norway

At midday, when Britain pays more than every neighbour, power flows into Britain on every continental cable. In the evening, when Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark pay more than Britain, the flow on their cables falls away.

Looking at each cable, four patterns stand out:

Into Britain at all hours: France. French power is cheaper than British at every time of day, so it flows into Britain almost all the time.

Into Britain most in the evening: Norway. Its hydro plants sell when Britain's price peaks, so the North Sea Link carries most in the evening.

Into Britain at midday, both ways in the evening: Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark. They are cheaper than Britain at midday and dearer in the evening, so their cables carry power into Britain at midday and both ways in the evening.

Out of Britain: Ireland and Northern Ireland. Power flows from Britain to the island of Ireland in nearly nine hours out of ten.

Who earns from the gap

A French nuclear plant selling into Britain is paid the French price; the British supplier buying the power pays the British price. The difference is earned on the cable: its owners sell space on it in auctions, and the traders who buy that space keep the price difference, less what they paid. On our estimate it came to about €1.5 billion this year, more than half of it on the cables to France. The cables are owned by:

France: IFA and IFA2 by National Grid and RTE, France's grid operator; ElecLink, through the Channel Tunnel, by Getlink.

Belgium: Nemo, by National Grid and Elia.

Netherlands: BritNed, by National Grid and TenneT.

Norway: the North Sea Link, by National Grid and Statnett.

Denmark: Viking, by National Grid and Energinet.

Nemo, the North Sea Link, IFA2 and Viking are regulated under Ofgem's cap-and-floor regime: earnings above an agreed cap are returned to British consumers through their bills, and shortfalls below a floor are made up by them. ElecLink is a commercial link with no cap.

What this means for British buyers and cable owners

Britain's price gap with its neighbours is unlikely to close soon. It comes from the generation mix: Britain still burns far more gas than France or Germany, and new nuclear plants and offshore wind farms take years to build. Britain has cut its gas use sharply since 2022, yet its premium over France grew this year. In our gas chart, only Italy, Ireland, Greece, Belgium and the Netherlands burn a larger share of gas than Britain.

Imports do not bring the French price into Britain. Imported power is sold at the British price, so a British supplier pays the same whether its power was generated in Britain or in France, and the difference goes to the cable owners and traders. The trade can also reverse, as it did in 2022, when France's reactors were down and Britain sold power to France. And the cables carry British power out as well as in, nearly half of it to the island of Ireland.

More capacity is coming. NeuConnect, a cable to Germany, is due to open in 2028, according to its developers, and German midday power costs about half as much as Britain's, so its owners will earn on that difference. In November 2024 Ofgem approved in principle three more cables under its cap-and-floor regime, Tarchon to Germany, MaresConnect to Ireland and LirIC to Northern Ireland, and two offshore hybrid links, which connect offshore wind farms to two countries at once: LionLink to the Netherlands and Nautilus to Belgium. Ofgem expects MaresConnect and Tarchon to connect before the end of 2032.

Results by neighbour

Methodology

Prices are hourly day-ahead prices for each bidding zone, from the European power exchanges via Energy-Charts. Great Britain's are Elexon's market index, a volume-weighted index of short-term trades rather than a day-ahead auction price, converted from pounds at the European Central Bank's daily rate. Midday is 11:00 to 15:00 and evening 18:00 to 22:00, Central European Time. Zero-price hours are hours at or below €0. Generation is daily output by source from Energy-Charts, and for Great Britain from the National Energy System Operator's historic generation mix; gas's share is gas-fired output divided by total generation. Britain's use is generation plus net imports. Cable flows are hourly physical flows between Great Britain and each neighbour from Energy-Charts; an hour counts as flowing into Britain when the average flow on a country's cables in that hour ran towards Great Britain. The gap value multiplies each hour's net flow by the price difference between Great Britain and the zone at the other end (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, western Denmark, and southern Norway's North Sea Link zone) and sums the result. 2026 figures cover 1 January to 20 October.