Drax scraps plan to bring two coal-fired units out of retirement this winter

• 10 months ago (2023-06-29)
• David Flin

Coal 274 Europe 1061

---

Drax has scrapped a plan to bring two coal-fired units at its plant in North Yorkshire out of retirement. It had been in talks with National Grid to restart two units that had been shut earlier this year, to help secure UK power supply over the winter.

Drax said that it had concluded “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.

National Grid also had talks with EDF about making its West Burton A coal-fired power plant available this winter, but EDF closed the plant and was not able to make it available.

This means that Ratcliffe-on-Soar, owned by Uniper , will be the UK’s only coal-fired power plant on standby this winter.

National Grid said its early forecasts for the coming winter’s electricity supplies showed there would be sufficient power to meet demand. The power supply buffer is expected to be 4.8 GW, which National Grid said was higher than last year.