The national grid shuts down coal-fired power plants in preparation for France’s aid | energy industry

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Coal-fired power stations ordered to heat were shut down by National Grid on Thursday after the French grid operator sounded the alarm about the impact of the strike.

Two units at Drax in Yorkshire and one at West Burton in Nottinghamshire were ordered to fire just before midnight on Wednesday. West Burton’s unit was stopped at 5.13am, and Drax units were later also informed that they would not be called into action.

It was the third time in a week that the national grid electricity supply operator (ESO) had asked coal-fired plants to warm up if necessary. The units have been put on standby as a contingency plan amid fears of power outages this winter.

The National Grid has been active in balancing the UK’s power supply in recent days as it adjusts to cooler and less windy weather, increasing energy use and causing wind power generation to decline.

However, ESO said the latest warm-up instructions were not in response to the recent cold snap in the UK. Instead, it came after French grid operator RTE said assistance may be required after being informed of the strike affecting electricity generation on Thursday which “could put their network on alert”. It was later determined that it was no longer needed “after analyzing the network margins”.

Britain’s electricity supply is linked to France by undersea interconnection cables, which allow power to flow between countries when there is demand. The IAEA said coal plants would only have been available to help generate power for France if they were not needed to prevent blackouts in Great Britain.

National Grid also ran its elasticity of demand service for the first time this month outside of trials. The service includes energy suppliers paying some households to take power-reduction smart meters, which helps reduce peak demand, meaning they have less need to rely on more polluting energy sources when energy use picks up in the evening. Some companies have already been pushed to reduce energy use.

In total, National Grid is expected to pay suppliers just over £3m for the service on two days this week, with around £850,000 on Monday and £2.1m for the longer session on Tuesday.

In the future, service is likely to be more widespread and electric vehicles and household batteries will play an increasing role in balancing the grid.

Drax, the owner of the Yorkshire units, and West Porton, owned by the French company EDF, agreed in the summer to extend the life of the coal-fired generating units through the winter for a fee as the UK government looked to subsidize. Energy supply after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The two plants were scheduled to close their coal operations in the fall to reduce use of the more polluting fuel, but Drax and EDF have agreed to keep them open until at least March if required by the National Grid.

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An ESO spokesperson said: “In support of the mutual cooperation between Great Britain and its neighboring power grids, ESO has responded to France’s request to generate an additional GB to be able to provide assistance today if needed by heating emergency coal units.

“ESO was able to take this action to support the French network in avoiding a consumer disconnect, as the GB network is currently operating as normal and this action will not put GB consumers at risk. After further assessment of network margins in both countries, ESO has now discontinued coal units This is amazing “.

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