Tough financial forces plus bad summerweather seem to be determined to try andtake charge of the wholesale energy supplymarket.

Prices tumbled throughout the center of June to brand-new lows. Annual gas prices are today

15% lower than the same time last year, whilst annual power prices fell to a two-year low and are

22% down year-on-year.

Falling force costs dragged yearly spark spreads down 7% to £3.4/MWh, and even which

reliable stalwart coal is having a difficult time of aspects, with slipping costs buffering the fall of

dark spreads somewhat to a £17.9/MWh premium to spark spreads.

So what's been setting off these price crashes? Well, concerns about debt inside the Eurozonecountries hasn't helped. Greece lurches from crisis to crisis and even the election of the moderngovernment is doing little to allay worries about its long-term future. But it's slowing financialgrowth in the US plus China which has certainly pushed global vitality markets downwards. Brent

Tycoon Energy Crude Oil tumbled to $97.6/bl, its lowest level because January 2011, and annual

API coal dropped to a modern 20-month low of $95.4/t.

However, all of this is good news for customers. While you will be lost out on which 'BBQ

summer' the forecasters guaranteed us, both domestic plus commercial end-users have watched

energy prices drop inside real terms. A fall inside inflation has equally helped to stabilise the retail

market, but the big difference has been at the pumps, where motorists have finally started to see

the numbers found on the forecourts going down rather of up. This, combined with lower electricity

plus gas costs, has provided the British economy a short respite, throughout which it has a chance

to push up production and keep the delicate heart of UK PLC beating for a while longer.

Ironically, it's been the biomass market which has held the fort. Despite biomass contracts

dropping, with costs for 2013 down 1% to £88.5/t, prices are nevertheless around 6%

higher than this time last year. They've recovered from their four-year low and are at their highest

level for five months. This boost has been helped in no small measure with all the approval of the

plans for a 40MW staw-fuelled biomass plant inside Snetterton, Norfolk, that have finally been

given the go-ahead.

The real headline grabber throughout June plus into July has been the atrocious weather the UK

has experienced. Lower than average June temperatures plus storm following storm has resulted

inside a rise in UK gas demand. Supply peaked at 223.1mcm on 11th June, inside the center of

the bad weather. Industry watchers believe which the unseasonably bad weather has encouraged

numerous individuals to do anything they wouldn't normally do in June - they turned the heating

up. The outcome was that though the nationwide program decreased 0.1%, the regional system

climbed 2.2%. To date, summer demand (measured from April 1st) was down 7.8% on the

nationwide system but up a staggering 31.1% found on the territorial program, compared to the

same time last year.

What this indicates is that while gas demand for energy generation is down year-on-year,

consumption by households plus little businesses has risen. This signifies which gas consumption

is acting because a barometer for the productiveness of the UK economy and while the big users

can be trying, homes and companies are continuing to ride out the worst of the economic storm,

placing a more positive face on what has been a difficult limited months.

How prices will fare inside the upcoming few weeks will depend on 3 factors - the resolution (or

otherwise) of the Eurozone crisis, plus the financial condition of the US plus China. If they

commence to wobble you might see costs begin to climb back up again.