UPDATE 1-UK gas prices return to levels typical for season

* Demand seen at 346 mcm, 4.5% above seasonal norm
* Temperatures to remain above zero Celsius this week

(Updates prices, adds weekend power market alert)
London, Feb 13 (Reuters) - UK spot gas prices sank on
Monday as temperatures turned milder and demand returned to
levels earlier in the winter heating season before the recent
severe cold spell.
At 346 million cubic metres (mcm), Monday's gas demand was
expected to be around 4.53 percent above the daily seasonal
norm, according to data from transmission system operator
National Grid.
Last week, cold weather pushed daily gas prices and demand
to multi-year highs, but spot gas prices in Britain have come
off by more than 40 percent from their highs at around 100 pence
per therm last week.
Gas prices for delivery on Tuesday were trading
around 57.50 pence ($90.81) per therm at 1630 GMT, and
within-day prices were around 58.50 pence, down 15.25 pence and
15 pence, respectively.

Point Carbon analysts said they expected UK spot gas prices
to drop further.
"Consumption is forecast down for day-ahead, giving a
bearish signal for the day-ahead contract," Point Carbon said,
and added that despite lower deliveries from liquefied natural
gas (LNG) terminals, it expected less need for withdrawals from
gas storage facilities in coming days.
Gas storage sites across Britain were on average almost 53
percent full on Sunday, according to data from Gas
Infrastructure Europe.

WEATHER
The UK's Met Office said that it did not expect a return to
sub-zero temperatures in the coming days and that there were no
severe weather warnings issued.
Point Carbon's weather forecasters said that "a major high
mostly situated to the west of the UK will dominate the weather
for the rest of this week (with) daytime temperatures in the
range of 6-7 degrees Celsius".

TECHNICALS
Further out on the price curve, the NBP Summer 2012 gas
contract has fallen back below its 50 exponential daily moving
average (DMA) value and is now struggling to maintain itself
above its 23.6 percent Fibonacci retracement value above 55.15
pence per therm.
Last week, the product rose to almost 58 pence, but failed
to break through its 100 DMA value.
Moving average convergence-divergence (MACD) signals are
converging towards negativity, implying more downward momentum
in the market.

POWER
Power prices for baseload (24 hours) delivery on Tuesday
were at 46 pounds a megawatt-hour, down 6.5 pounds since Friday
afternoon.
National Grid issued an electricity system alert on
Saturday, instructing distribution network operators (DNOs) to
cut consumption as freezing weather and production blackouts
threatened to impair the country's power network.
"There is a risk of widespread disturbance to the whole or
part of the GB Transmission System," between 10:30 GMT and 19:30
GMT on Saturday, National Grid said at the time.
A number of power plants stopped producing electricity as a
result of technical problems, tightening supplies to the market,
according to a spokesman.
"As this can happen anytime, we carry additional reserve to
manage this, and we also have a number of tools we can use to
help us manage the system," he said.
"One of these tools is to ask the DNOs (distribution network
operators) to reduce the amount of power they take from our
network," he added.($1 = 0.6332 British pounds)

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein and Oleg Vukmanovic; Editing by
Jane Baird)