"It all leapt up on the outages this morning but then came off a bit as people realised the shortage wasn't as big as they thought and started selling," one dealer said. British Energy said its nuclear power station Hartlepool, which has a capacity of 1,200 megawatts (MW), went offline late on Monday night due to an electrical supply fault. Traders said another 2,000 MW - equivalent of about three percent of total generation capacity - came offline overnight, which helped push up prices further in England and Wales. The front months steamed higher on the back of the prompt, with August up 25 pence at 15.10 pounds, September rising 23 pence to 15.75 pounds and October up 20 pence at 17.60 pounds. The forward curve was lifted by firmer oil prices, with winter 03 inching up 10 pence to 20.07 pounds where it hovered most of the day. Summer 04 gained 14 pence at 15.79 pounds, winter 04 rose 11 pence to 20.66 pounds and summer 05 put on 15 pence to 18.55 pounds. "There has been a lot of buying interest on the curve because of the gains in the oil," another dealer said. On Monday, IPE Brent futures soared a dollar as a nationwide strike in OPEC-member Nigeria and a tropical storm in the United States increased concerns about oil supplies. There had been no bookings in daily capacity auctions on the UK/France interconnector.

British Energy said its nuclear power station Hartlepool, which has a capacity of 1,200 megawatts (MW), went offline late on Monday night due to an electrical supply fault.

Traders said another 2,000 MW - equivalent of about three percent of total generation capacity - came offline overnight, which helped push up prices further in England and Wales.

The front months steamed higher on the back of the prompt, with August up 25 pence at 15.10 pounds, September rising 23 pence to 15.75 pounds and October up 20 pence at 17.60 pounds.

The forward curve was lifted by firmer oil prices, with winter 03 inching up 10 pence to 20.07 pounds where it hovered most of the day.

Summer 04 gained 14 pence at 15.79 pounds, winter 04 rose 11 pence to 20.66 pounds and summer 05 put on 15 pence to 18.55 pounds.

"There has been a lot of buying interest on the curve because of the gains in the oil," another dealer said.

On Monday, IPE Brent futures soared a dollar as a nationwide strike in OPEC-member Nigeria and a tropical storm in the United States increased concerns about oil supplies.

There had been no bookings in daily capacity auctions on the UK/France interconnector.