Energy Secretary calls for coal-burning power plants to remain open another year

PLANS to close Britain’s last coalburning power facilities should be delayed for another year, the Energy Secretary has said.

Grant Shapps is hoping to keep the emergency coal plants on stand-by through next winter, despite prior agreements to begin winding down operations later this month.

Facilities at Britain’s three remaining coal-fired power plants had been scheduled to close last year, as owners moved into greener forms of energy.

However, last summer Kwasi Kwarteng, business secretary at the time, asked the owners of the units to keep them open for the winter to prevent blackouts. The request followed concerns over electricity shortages amid disruption to gas supplies triggered by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

EDF, Uniper and Drax agreed to keep units open for back-up supply if needed during winter under special contingency

‘I’m not going to risk our energy security. I’ll want it on stand-by for next year, it would be crazy not to’

contracts with National Grid, costing an estimated £368m.

The costs included stockpiling hundreds of thousands of tons of coal to burn in an emergency. None of the plants so far has been required to do so. Asked whether he was happy for the plants to close, Mr Shapps told The Times: “No, I would absolutely want to make sure that we have the resilience there in case we need it, and I’ve already sent instructions to make sure that would be the case.” He continued: “I’m not going to risk our energy security. I’ll want it on stand-by for next year, of course, it would be crazy not to.”

However, EDF and Drax have reportedly not received any formal request to remain open, while the National Grid confirmed that it had not been asked by the Government to do so. Uniper has agreed to remain open until 2024.

A government spokesman said: “We are continuously monitoring our energy supply and will ensure we are ready for a range of scenarios.”