Britain to fire up coal plant as heat raises power demand
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It is the first time since the end of April that Britain has needed coal to produce electricity.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Britain’s electricity and gas utility company, National Grid, asked the country’s last active coal-fired power plant to generate on Monday to help stabilise the network as demand rises and wind output drops.
The third of four units at Uniper’s Ratcliffe power station in central England is generating power, according to grid data.
It is the first time since the end of April that Britain has needed coal to produce electricity, after two other coal plants entered decommissioning at the end of March.
The margin between supply and demand is tight as two key interconnectors with France and Norway are importing at half their maximum capacity, while various other power plants are also down for summer maintenance.
At the same time, warm air is raising demand for electricity and limiting wind power output, which was contributing 10 per cent of total generation, according to National Grid data.
Separately, early on Monday morning, the grid operator asked a further unit at Ratcliffe to warm up in case it is needed as demand rises in the afternoon. It would start generating at 2.45pm earliest, according to a notice.
National Grid’s decision to turn to fossil fuel angered environmentalists.
“It is a sign of failure that the National Grid is turning to one of the most polluting forms of power generation to deal with a summer heatwave that we know has been made worse because of climate change,” said Greenpeace campaigner Ami McCarthy.
“Why has the government left us caught in this doom loop spiral of using coal to tackle the impacts of a warming planet, when we have far better, greener, and cheaper solutions?“
Ms McCarthy added that the government should help insulate homes properly to keep them cool in the summer months and warm in the winter – and urged it to implement greater use of solar power during warmer weather.
Britain is experiencing a bout of hot weather,
There were amber heat health warnings in place for the south-east and other regions through Tuesday, when temperatures are expected to ease.
The grid operator fine-tunes supply and demand in the balancing market, where plants like Ratcliffe are paid to turn up and down.
As the need to be able to respond to large peaks and troughs of supply increases in the coming years, it is likely that excess demand will be turned down at peak times so polluting plants will not need to be turned up.
The day-ahead power price for Monday rose to £92.99 (S$157) per megawatt-hour on Nord Pool, before dropping 8 per cent to £85.21 for Tuesday.
Demand was expected to peak at 28.5 gigawatts at 5.30pm London time on Monday – much lower than typical power needs in winter, but at a time when plants are halted for summer maintenance and wind supply is low.
Many British power plant units are usually off for maintenance during the summer when demand is lower.
The heat can also cause plants to trip, limiting expected output.
Scottish nuclear reactor Torness-2 was hit by an unplanned shutdown on Monday morning and is now set to be offline until next Tuesday, according to a notice. BLOOMBERG/AFP
