Handful of gas plants paid £4m to generate electricity at half- and full-time in World Cup game

A handful of Great Britain’s gas power plants were paid almost £4m to generate electricity for just a few hours on Tuesday evening as millions of sweltering viewers turned to air conditioning, fans and icy drinks during England’s second World Cup game.

The heatwave has caused electricity prices across Europe to surge this week amid higher demand for cooling and a string of power plant outages due to the record high temperatures.