Uniper is the latest company to reach an agreement with the UK Government to keep a coal-fired power plant online throughout the winter months in order to mitigate the impact of the ongoing energy crisis.
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) reached out to Uniper along with Drax and EDF to request delays in the decommissioning of their coal-fired power plants to provide additional support over winter back in April
EDF has confirmed its West Burton A coal-fired plant will continue running as part of the standby arrangement designed to support energy security. It will be decommissioned from April 2023.
While Drax has also agreed to keep its coal-fired plant running through the 2022/23 winter.
Uniper’s has now confirmed that its Ratcliffe power station, due to close in September 2022, will be kept open for the duration of the winter until 31 March 2023 to maintain energy supply security. This will be for dispatch by National Grid ESO.
Uniper has also confirmed it will review the potential of keeping the coal plant in operation after this time period until September 2024 – the date for Britain’s coal phase out.
“Following a request from the Government to keep our unit earmarked for closure in September 2022 open, I’m pleased that we’ve reached an agreement to help bolster the UK’s supply security with National Grid ESO during this winter,” said Mike Lockett, Uniper UK country chairman.
“I’d like to thank all our employees at Ratcliffe power station for their contribution in ensuring that we can continue to operate the unit.”
LCP set out its predictions that Britain could experience ten hours of insufficient electricity supply this winter, drastically reduced from the initial 79 hours before this contingency agreement had been announced.
The company’s modelled loss of load expectation (LOLE) suggests it will be well outside National Grid ESO’s early winter outlook, which forecasted a LOLE of 0.1 hours, and outside of the country’s reliability standard of three hours per year.
As indicated by Uniper, if by next March the situation is still unresolved, there are potential plans to keep the coal plants running until 2024.
