What's powering
the island
right now

Method

Crude and the 3:2:1 crack spread. The spread is the margin a refiner notionally earns turning three barrels of WTI into two of petrol and one of diesel or heating oil. EIA spot prices at New York Harbor are the reference, but EIA only publishes them on Wednesdays, so the most recent days use nearest-month futures (ICE Brent, NYMEX WTI, RBOB and heating oil) until the spot figures land and replace them. It is a US margin; the European equivalent needs paid price data.

GB gas is the System Average Price (SAP) from National Gas, the average of all gas traded on the day on the balancing market, converted from pence per kWh to pence per therm (29.3071 kWh in a therm). It tracks the NBP day-ahead closely but is not the exchange price you see quoted in the papers.

Irish day-ahead power is the SEM bidding zone price, which covers the whole island, as published by Fraunhofer ISE's Energy-Charts (the same clearing prices ENTSO-E publishes). The daily figure is the plain average of the hourly prices for the local day.

From Trading Economics' page: their crack spread index for the average US refinery, Dutch TTF gas in euro per MWh, the daily EU carbon market quote, the Baltic Dry index and Newcastle coal. Weekend values are Friday's close.

Clean spark spread is what a gas plant clears after fuel and carbon: day-ahead power minus GB gas in euro divided by 50% efficiency, minus the EUA price times 0.202 tonnes of CO₂ per thermal MWh, again divided by efficiency. Irish plants buy gas a shade above GB prices, so treat it as indicative.

Pump prices are the European Commission's Weekly Oil Bulletin figures for Ireland, taxes included, in euro per litre. Brent is shown beside them in euro per litre so you can see how fast, or slow, the forecourt follows the barrel.

EU carbon is the clearing price of EUA auctions on EEX, averaged where more than one auction clears on the same day. Auctions don't run every day, so the line steps.

Gold, silver and platinum are the LBMA daily benchmark prices, in dollars and in euro. Copper and the softs are nearest-month futures closes (COMEX, CBOT, ICE), so expect small differences from LME cash quotes. Copper is converted from dollars per pound to dollars per tonne.

Home heating oil is the daily national average price of a delivered fill of kerosene, taxes in, compiled from supplier quotes in every county. Petrol and diesel have no official daily series in Ireland: the weekly figure is the official Oil Bulletin average for the Monday, and the monthly one is AA Ireland's survey.

Feeds

Grid figures are near real time; everything else updates daily or weekly at source.