Perhaps Love Island was to blame? At 9:20pm last night, as the reality TV show pulled in its latest ratings success UK coal power came back online for the first time in over a fortnight.

The return of coal-fired power brought to an end a record run of coal-free operation that stretched to 18 days and six hours.

National Grid ESO tweeted a statement last night confirming that "due to plant availability and system requirements, our current coal run has come to an end".

The firing up of one of the UK's coal plants meant the latest record coal free run stood at 18 days six hours and 10 minutes, comfortably the longest period the grid has operated without coal power since 1882.

However, even after coal came back online it provided just a fraction of the UK's power mix overnight. The @UK_Coal Twitter account, which tracks coal's share of the grid, confirmed coal's share of the mix peaked at 1.06 per cent overnight before dropping back down to 0.11 per cent this morning.

The latest record run has fuelled hopes coal-free operation of the grid will become the new normal during the summer months. Some industry experts had speculated that the latest run could extend into August or September, and even though the latest run has been ended further records are expected to be set in the coming months as renewables generation increases.

During the period coal was off the grid gas met 40 per cent of demand, nuclear met 20 per cent, wind provided 13 per cent, imports delivered 11 per cent, biomass eight per cent, solar seven per cent, and both large hydro and storage projects provided less than one per cent each.

This #Coal free run ended at 18 Days 6 Hours 10 Minutes.

This is the longest run without coal for Great Britain since 1882.

Generation during this time was met by: Gas 40%, Nuclear 20%, Wind 13%, Imports 11%, Biomass 8%, Solar 7%, Large Hydro <1%, Storage <1% pic.twitter.com/CcGZzqFLpe

— UK Coal (@UK_Coal) June 4, 2019

The government plans to close all the UK's coal plants by 2025, while National Grid is working to ensure fully fossil free generation across the grid by the same date, when weather conditions allow.

Clean energy advocates maintain the rapid development of renewables, energy storage, and smart grid technologies, coupled with continuing nuclear generation can consistently deliver an emissions-free grid in the coming years. However, some experts have counselled it will be considerably harder to push gas generation off the grid than has been the case with coal.

But the latest record coal-free run provides further evidence the clean energy transition is proceeding far faster than many of its critics anticipated and paves the way for record low energy-related emissions this year.

The record has been welcomed by green businesses and campaigners, but they have also again warned that the progress the UK has made in decarbonising the power grid has not been matched by other parts of the economy.

Campaigners were also left incensed this week by reports the government is preparing to effectively water down the UK's medium-term carbon targets by allowing emissions savings from previous carbon budget periods to be carried forward.