Record coal-free run comes to end

ENERGY: Britain’s recordbreaking run without coal-fired power has come to an end after more than two months.

National Grid Electricity System Operator said the run lasted 67 days, 22 hours and 55 minutes before ending on Tuesday night due to a coal power unit in North Yorkshire, running tests after essential maintenance.

BRITAIN’S RECORD-BREAKING run without coal-fired power has come to an end after more than two months.

National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) said the coal-free run lasted 67 days, 22 hours and 55 minutes before ending on Tuesday night due to a coal power unit in North Yorkshire, running tests after essential maintenance.

By the time it ended, the coal-free run had far outstripped the previous record for the length of time Britain had gone without the fossil fuel – 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes, set in June last year.

It is the longest period the British grid has gone without electricity from coal since 1882.

In recent months, lockdown measures have seen a drop in power demand, while increasing levels of renewables have helped squeeze out coal.

Over the period of the coalfree run, renewables made up the biggest share of the mix, generating nearly 36 per cent of power, while gas provided around 33 per cent, and nuclear

21 per cent, analysis by climate and energy website Carbon Brief shows.

Coal has played an increasingly small role in Britain’s power mix in recent years, with a Government target to phase it out altogether by 2024. Its share of generation fell to just two per cent last year.

National Grid ESO said it is planning to be able to operate the grid for periods without any fossil fuels, including gas, by 2025.

The coal-free run ended after Drax, in North Yorkshire, carried out tests on one of its units which required it to generate power.

Drax said essential maintenance had been carried out on one of its coal generating units “as is usual during the spring and summer months when demand is lower, and the coal units are not required to run”.

In a statement, it said: “Following the completion of this work, we need to make sure the unit is performing well, ready for the winter when demand for power increases and the coal units are expected to run.

“As a result, tests are being carried out now which require the unit to generate power.”

Drax will stop generating power using coal in March 2021, with the loss of between 200 and 230 jobs.

There are just two other coal-fired power plants still on the system.

Drax burned around 200,000 tonnes of coal last year, compared with around 9.3m tonnes in 2005.