Drax power chief warns on deadline for coal stations closure

Drax power chief warns on deadline for coal stations closure

Britain will need power from coal even after the 2025 deadline to scrap it unless the government does more to encourage other forms of fuel, the head of the country’s biggest power station has said.

The target of closing all coal-fired stations by the end of 2025 is a central part of the government’s energy policy.
 

But Andy Koss, chief executive of the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, said the deadline would be missed unless ministers put the right incentives in place for gas, biomass or other fuels.

Speaking in his office overlooked by the plant’s hulking cooling towers, Mr Koss said: “If sufficient new build is not coming through then the government will have to look again at whether 2025 is the right cut-off date.

“If no new plant is being built, then I think there is a role for Drax [half of which is coal-fired] to keep running.”

Setting out Conservative energy policy for the next decade and beyond last year, Amber Rudd, the energy secretary, promised an end to coal power. But she said this would only be achieved if there was enough alternative forms of power to ensure the security of electricity supply.

So far, the government is struggling to encourage the construction of new power plants it needs. A scheme set up to incentivise more gas-fired generation has instead handed out hundreds of millions of pounds of subsidies to pre-planned nuclear and highly polluting diesel power.

A recent report by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers warned that the closure of all coal and ageing nuclear plants could leave Britain with a supply gap of 40-55 per cent by 2025.

Source: FT