Uniper restarts two coal-fired units in UK

• 10 months ago (2023-06-14)
• David Flin

Coal 274 Europe 1061

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Uniper has announced that following a request from National Grid , it has placed on standby two units of its Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in the UK.

Several factors had combined to put strain on the grid: the surge in demand for air conditioning in the hot weather; a fault on the 1400 MW North Sea Link interconnector with Norway due to a problem at an onshore facility in Norway, which meant the power the subsea cable could carry was reduced by half; and planned maintenance at the Torness nuclear power station.

Natural gas-fired power plants were providing about 41 per cent of the UK’s electricity on 12 June. The heat wave is impacting wind power, which was providing just 7 per cent of the country’s power. In Q1 2023, wind power supplied over 30 per cent of UK’s electricity.

The action on 12 June ended 46 consecutive days in which coal had not been used to generate electricity in Britain.