Britain’s final coal power plant ramps up power as cold snap hits

Britain's last active coal plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, helped generate 3.3pc of all electricity consumed over the past week
Britain's last active coal plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, helped generate 3.3pc of all electricity consumed over the past week - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Eir Nolsoe
44 min read

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Britain is leaning on its final coal power plant for increased electricity supply as an Arctic blast hits the country.

Coal contributed its largest share of electricity generation on Monday since November, Energy Dashboard figures show.

Britain’s last active coal plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, helped generate 3.4pc of all electricity produced in the UK at the start of the week, well above average levels throughout the year.

It could be on course for its busiest week in at least a year, after contributing 2.3pc to electricity generation over the past week which is one of the highest levels in the past 12 months.

It comes as temperatures in the UK plummet and could go as low as -10 Celsius in the coming days. It is expected to lead to higher demand for electricity.

While pressure on the grid has been lessened by good wind power generation on Monday, the coming days could prove more challenging if this changes.

In this instance, the National Grid ESO, which operates the transmission network, could resort to paying families to turn off their washing machines, fridges and other appliances to manage demand.

The National Grid ESO had five coal plants on standby last winter to add extra capacity at times of peak demand. This winter, only Ratcliffe has remained online after the four other units closed.

The system operator’s main contingency measure is therefore to pay families to switch off devices, which it has already done twice this winter.

Tony Jordan of energy consultancy Auxilione said that the grid faced less pressure than last year.

He said: “I don’t think there’s any real panic. We’ve got any capacity available. Prices are still down at the moment. Crisis is getting further and further behind us. If we do have any tightening it would just be really short term events.”

The Government plans to close Ratcliffe-on-Soar, which is owned by Germany’s Uniper, in September.

While the use of coal in the UK energy system has dropped to historical lows over the last year, it has remained an active part of the mix during the colder winter months.

Kathryn Porter from Watt-Logic said that the recent surge in coal was a “hangover from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” as gas prices were still twice as high as before the invasion.

Ms Porter said: “Although gas prices have evolved in the last year, they are still double what they were before that and you have not seen the same dynamic in the coal market. It has been economic to run coal ahead of some gas power stations this winter, which is why we’ve seen Ratcliffe running as much as it has.”

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