Coal power station put on standby as low winds forecast

THE National Grid has asked one of Britain’s coal-fired power plants to be on standby as low winds are expected to leave electricity supplies tighter than usual.

In an announcement yesterday, National Grid ESO (electricity system operator) said it had stood up one coal unit at Ratcliffe-on-soar power station, owned by Uniper, with a capacity of 480 megawatts.

The unit, one of five being kept in reserve this winter, has been instructed to begin warming so that it is able to dispatch power tomorrow if needed.

A statement from the Grid added: “This notification is not confirmation that the unit will be used on Tuesday, but that it will be available to the ESO, if required.

“The ESO as a prudent system operator has developed these tools for additional contingency to operate the network as normal.

“This does not mean electricity supplies are at risk.”

A spokesman said the main reason for standing up the coal-fired unit was a forecast of low winds tomorrow. That is likely to mean less power than usual is generated from the country’s wind farms, making electricity supplies tighter.

Yesterday, data from the Grid showed that 22pc of the nation’s power was being generated by wind, with 27pc coming from gas-fired power plants, 13pc from nuclear and 8.5pc from solar. Another 5.7pc was being generated

‘The unit will be available if required. This does not mean electricity supplies are at risk’

from biomass and just 1.6pc from coal.

Two coal-fired units at Drax in Yorkshire and one at West Burton in Nottinghamshire, owned by EDF, were asked to fire up late last month but were not called into action.

On that occasion, the ESO said the warm-up instruction was a response to a request from the French grid operator, RTE, amid strike action affecting electricity generation.