Britain will be down to its last coal-fired energy plant this winter after Drax scrapped a proposal to bring two coal-fired units at its vast power plant in North Yorkshire out of retirement to help guard against power cuts.
The FTSE 250 energy company had been in talks with National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) to restart two coal power units that were shut this year after 50 years of coal-fired generation at the Drax site near Selby.
Drax said it had concluded that “a combination of technical, maintenance and staffing reasons” meant it would not be possible to extend the life of its coal plants to this winter.
The ESO had also held talks with EDF about making its West Burton A coal-fired power plant available this winter, but the French energy company moved ahead with its plans to close the Nottinghamshire plant in April this year after a lifespan of 57 years.
That means the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant – also in Nottinghamshire and owned by German utility Uniper – will be the last remaining coal plant on standby to generate power for the electricity grid this winter to avert blackouts if supplies run short.
The ESO said earlier this month that it would be watching the energy industry “like hawks” this winter in case Russia’s war on Ukraine triggers further energy supply disruptions in the global market similar to those that led to record high prices last year.
It spent around £400m keeping the Drax, West Burton A and Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal plants on standby over last winter. The energy secretary, Grant Shapps, said earlier this year that it would be “crazy” not to have the plants on standby again this winter.
But the ESO said its early forecasts for the coming winter’s electricity supplies showed there would still be more than enough power to meet demand. The power supply “buffer” is expected to be 4.8GW, or 8% of the UK’s total electricity supplies, which the ESO said was “really healthy” and higher than last winter.
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The Ratcliffe coal plant is expected to remain open until September 2024, and was called on to fire up earlier this month during a surge in electricity demand driven by large numbers of air conditioning units being switched on to tackle rising temperatures.
