Britain forced to fire up coal plant amid record power prices and winter squeeze
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
Young Rachel seems surprised!!
The UK has turned to a coal-fired power station to help boost its energy supply after global gas and power prices hit new highs and wind farms produced very low levels of electricity.
National Grid ESO, which balances Britain’s electricity supply and demand, asked EDF to fire up two units at its West Burton A power station in Lincolnshire. They had previously been on standby.
The Government plans to phase-out coal-fired power by 2024 in an effort to slash carbon emissions. Most coal-fired power stations have closed, but some remain available to help meet demand – particularly in emergencies.
Wind power now generates about 20pc of UK electricity across the year but varies hugely day by day. On Monday morning, output fell to 474 megawatts compared to a record 14,286 megawatts on May 21, Bloomberg said.
At 11am on Monday morning, coal was providing 3.9pc of Britain’s power mix; 47pc from gas; 1.9pc from wind; and 11.4pc from solar panels.
It comes as gas, which produces more than 35pc of UK electricity across the year, trades at more than three times normal rates amid a global supply crunch.
Many countries have been replacing coal-fired power stations with gas-fired alternatives, which produce less carbon emissions, but the high price of gas is making coal more appealing again.
High carbon charges on coal in Europe have been one reason for the high gas price, pushing up demand for gas by making coal more expensive.
National Grid ESO warned in July that Britain needed to prepare for a squeeze on energy supplies this winter as two nuclear plants shut down and workers return to the office.
The Hunterston B and Dungeness B nuclear stations are both due to shut within months, taking away a stable energy source at a time when unpredictable wind and solar generation is an increasingly part of the country’s power mix.
Don’t worry! We’ll soon have all of that lovely hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong?
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Coal & gas vs renewables. Re Govt & green blob CBT to have their cake and eat it. There will be a day of reckoning when they discover the painful truth.
(“The Govt & green blob want to… “. Apols for bad phone typing – big fingers vs small on-screen keys & the dreaded autocorrect!)
Young Rachel must be the only one who is surprised, none of those of us who haven’t fallen for this ‘scientific’ aberration have been expecting this for years!
Not very smart to ban fracking, was it?
Ian: Nobody “banned fracking”. Cuadrilla went bust because UK shale is simply too impervious to deliver viable shale gas. Don’t take my word – google Cuadrilla and testing.
“Fracking will not be allowed to proceed in England, the government has announced today, following the publication of new scientific analysis. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-ends-support-for-fracking
Fake News Vernon.
Odd. Fracking occurs all around the world. Has been happening for a decade or more. USA has become the worlds largest energy producer due to fracking.
A stupid non science decision by woke England……
But hey we are saving the planet by importing US fracked gas and pelletised US trees.😂
Stop it Vernon.
Put your substances away.
Rasa,
Fracking was invented in the 19th century, so that time line is off by a factor of 10. It is just that its current application to tight limestones embedded within shales is more recent.
Incidentally, without fracking geothermal is off the table as a source of energy as well.
If you read the link provided by Phillip then it’s clear government made a political decision, then wrapped it in diversionary jargon-filled gobbledygook to hide behind ‘The Science’.
Not at the current price of gas.
Oops.
Lies. How much are you getting paid?
Vernon E
Bullshit.
Even before it was banned (see Philip Bratby’s comment), Potato Ed Davey had imposed limits of seismic measurements which would have made dropping a Bible illegal. And bragged that he had thus made fracking possible.
No doubt you, and Potato Ed, will be rewarded by Gazprom with a nice wad of Rubles for your mendacity.
We all know PM and Princess, certain ministers and secretaries of state are more interested in appeasing the green blobs than in the wellbeing of voters. This winter, what’s the betting that those nasty coal fired stations will have to rescue the UK from blackouts.
Don’t be surprised that because they have likely been poorly maintained these coal generators will fail.
Rasa
Unless they have been granted a contract to generate when instructed and are able to retain their specialised workforce, they won’t have ‘maintained’ plant poorly. They won’t have maintained the plant at all.
Why the Hell would they?
The Genius Beloved Leaders decided years ago that reliable, very WELL maintained coal fired plant producing cheap and ample electricity were much better replaced by tarted up C.15th technology, entirely weather dependent and extortionately expensive.
What could go wrong?
We’ve had ample warnings. Now we will find out in a way obvious to the meanest intelligence.
Are there enough of them left operational to save us from a day like today* but with subzero temperatures and a couple of hours usable sun.
*Gridwatch Demand 34.38GW , Wind 0.92GW (2.68%), CCGT 16.21GW(47.15%)
Ferrybridge coal plant has just been blown to ensure it can’t be reused. Amazing how quick they are to destroy coal plants after they close, and often very early to avoid crowds – ie Didcot.
Ben
No
Coal rescues unreliable wind power that is least effective during severe weather when it is most needed. This story shows the same hypocrisy of Biden asking OPEC to increase exports of oil to allay the big price rise of gasoline since he was elected pushing an untenable green plan. The transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar is a farce and not happening for a reason – unreliability. Sadly, decommissioning coal in the UK will harm the countries economic future and will do nothing for the climate.
You nailed it James!
“Don’t worry! We’ll soon have all of that lovely hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong?”
It might explode? Disappear into outer space leaving the oxygen behind? 🙂
This comes hot on the heels of Alok Sharma, minister for Fantasy Energy Policy, demolishing a coal fired power station.
Who could have predicted this? Everybody but the government, the media and the greenblob.
There’s more in the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/09/06/sleepwalking-winter-energy-crisis/?WT.mc_id=e_DM1487189&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FPM_New_SM&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_FPM_New_SM20210906&utm_campaign=DM1487189
Phillip, from your link:
It doesn’t matter what the question is. The answer is always “build more windmills.”
Because they are doing so well at powering the country….
The benefits of coal fired power generation are massive: lowest cost and use a storable fuel.
The USA recognised this security aspect a few years ago and is protecting coal fired plant from short-term economics, (Germany and Japan likewise) the UK has its eyes tightly closed!
Parliament is occupied again but the lights are still out.
Don’t forget. A storable fuel like coal (and oil) is essentially storable energy. Likewise natgas in the reservoir in the ground – trillions of BTU’s of energy beneath our feet, ready to be tapped with existing well proven technology. Ignore claims that UK shale gas can’t be fracked. This is anti franking propaganda.
Except in Texas as they found out when the big freeze killed off wind power and then a stupid decision by Obummer to have gas supply powered by the grid which when it had to be cut to prevent complete grid failure, stopped gas power plants from generating. Oh for a pile of coal.
“The Hunterston B and Dungeness B nuclear stations are both due to shut within months,”
It really is painful to read this sort of crap reporting! Does the author not know Dungeness B officially closed many months ago and has not generated a single watt for nearly two years?
The standard of UK “journalism” is frankly appalling. If it is this poor on basics like this God help us with the complex stuff.
Just suppose that this fear that “Carbon Controls Climate” is based on a flawed conceptual model that is in fact wrong.
“Demystifying the Atmospheric Greenhouse Effect: Toward a New Physical Paradigm in Climate Science” by Ned Nikolov
Not seen Ned on Twitter for awhile and I’ve just searched and got nothing.
has he been thrown off for ripping the sacred GH theory to shreds?
I don’t do twitter, never have.
You need to look for him elsewhere.
The haste with which the demolition of closed coal fired power stations has taken place needs to be stopped and they should only be mothballed for the time being.
It’s deliberate – destroy the alternatives so even if the Greens are wrong about climate change they get their medieval economy anyway. Anybody with the slightest knowledge and understanding of the history of science would be ensuring that as much as possible of this Green madness is réversible because science is essentially always wrong eventually. The smarter Greens know that so ensure a scorched Earth policy to our modern society.
Yep. It’s to ensure the stupid decisions are irreversible.
Unfortunately most of the coal mines have closed so we’re in the situation of having an EV with a flat battery in a power cut.
Ben,
Don’t worry. According to Jillian Ambrose in the Guardian we will be saved by the owners of electric vehicles.
“If enough drivers take up the opportunity to make money from their car batteries by using vehicle- to -grid technology, the UK could avoid investing in new power plants with the equivalent generation capacity of up to 10 large nuclear power stations”
What kind of fantasy is this!?!
Come come everybody! As I write coal is producing a measly 4.4% and wind a magnificent 7.0%. What could possibly go wrong!!!
The same as happened in South Australia after the two coal-fired stations were demolished — A State wide blackout. Fortunately a supply of coal-fired electricity from Victoria and gas-fired and diesel generation was enough to get power to many after “a few hours” (Green comment on blog). My power was out for nearly 4 days and I know people who didn’t get it back for another 2 days, but then our electorate voted for the wrong party).
Voting was the mistake.
Is there a right party to vote for? Not in the UK.
‘Two coal facilities taken off standby as the amount of electricity coming from wind farms falls dramatically’
So the coal facilities had labor available?
What is the business model for standby?
Companies bid to provide Short Term Operating Reserve. It’s needed irrespective of what the generation mix.
The UK has four existing pumped storage projects – Cruachan and Foyers in Scotland, and Dinorwig and Ffestiniog in Wales.
None have been built for 30 years.
The move to wind, has meant that we’re basically using French nuclear as our reserve and now Norwegian hydro.
Sophistry. The higher the mix of intermittent generation the higher the requirement for standby capacity. Pretending that the problem is somehow a lack of building stored energy facilities is a lie – we haven’t built any for decades because gas generation proved be extremely cheap and extremely reliable, and supply from UK gas fields long lasting. Pretending otherwise is childish.
Coal in the UK is on its last legs, only 3 plants left. One closing next year, one converting to gas in 2023, leaving one (Ratcliffe, Notts.) yet to announce its own demise.
https://www.powerstations.uk/coal-countdown/
It’s been announced – 500mw going next year, the rest by 2024.
https://www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk/mag/news/uniper-accelerates-shut-down-of-ratcliffe-on-soar-power-plant/
Time to buy a generator and some warm blankets..
When its running flat out at 2GW this winter when we have a high depression over North Europe hopefully someone will see the sense to instruct them to hold back till 2024 before its decommissioned.
The article ends with a quote from Energy UK:
“Continuing the low-carbon transition and further reducing our dependency on fossil fuels for our heat and power will not only help us meet climate change targets but remove the risk of being exposed to volatile international wholesale prices.”
The very definition of insanity.
Given the plans for a big increase in interconnector capacity we will be enormously more exposed to volatile international wholesale prices. We will have to pay whatever it takes to make good for shortfalls when wind fails, and we will likely get negative prices when winds are strong enough to create a surplus. Moreover, as we are reducing ourselves to only one dispatchable fuel by letting coal and nuclear capacity collapse, there is no ability to use fuel switching to reduce the impact of any gas shortages.
The quote is I suggest the definition of a lie.
Or:
In order to avoid occasional high prices (volatility) we have gone for generation that has a permanently high price.
So the transition from electricity generation that is matched to demand (plus a 30% buffer supply) to 100% uncontrolled electricity generation.
I can’t see any issues looming.
Nothing to see here.
It makes much more sense to match demand to supply.
Didn’t the USSR prove that?
Bureaucrats can plan and control supply (or think they can) but demand is horribly messy, impossible to plan and often simply wrong.
Time to get fracking
Every winter the UK shuffles happily towards grid collapse, and of course mandates EVs and more home heating and cooking electrification. Yet they dont see the insanity of it.
Special and different i guess.
“Don’t worry! We’ll soon have all of that lovely hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong?”
You forgot the graphic…
Where / when was that ??
link please.
There’s this. https://www.evpost.co.kr/wp/%EB%85%B8%EB%A5%B4%EC%9B%A8%EC%9D%B4-%EC%88%98%EC%86%8C%EC%B6%A9%EC%A0%84%EC%86%8C-%ED%8F%AD%EB%B0%9C-%EC%82%AC%EA%B3%A0/
Ian’s website seems to be Korean. The title translates “Norway hydrogen refueling station explosion”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-57510870
Current policies don’t make economic sense for pumped storage.
Adam,
we only require a small amount of pumped storage for rapid frequency support, their main purpose. You say none have been built for thirty years, our maximum grid demand has dropped in that time.
Heat pumps and ‘electric’ cars….
Adm,
I only just saw the link you posted about the proposed scheme in Scotland.
Pumped storage, or any other type for that matter cannot make up for wind’s intermittency and for them to say it is necessary shows a real lack of understanding.
Note they say that 40 Gwatts of storage is required, which is the wrong unit. What counts is capacity measured in Gwatt hours. It only needs some simple arithmetic to calculate the difference between average wind output and actual low generation time to come to a figure that cannot possibly be provided. That and the discharged battery then has to be charged while also providing power for the grid.
No professional would advocate such a scheme, but ENSO seem to come out with other equally odd statements; e.g. vehicle to grid could by 2030 provide the equivalent of ten nuclear power stations at peak demand. (If there even is a peak demand when all these evs are on charge every night?)
I am sure that West Burton power station is in Nottinghamshire because I just binged it , it is very close though we can see it from Lincolnshire.
Yes, I often cycle past it!
Passing on a message, here:
“He cycles?
Letting the side down, in my opinion. To bring on the blackness quicker, and thus give us our deserved schadenfreude, we need to up our consumption of fuel, not eke it out!
The old Mark 10 Jags did 12 miles to the gallon, before they all rusted away.
Wallowing along, barely getting around corners – that was real motoring!
J Bonnington Jagsworth
c/o Home of Lost Causes (Maniac Wing)”
I too cycle, I try to do 100+ km a week. Just because I like to, until I could drive and afford a car it was my only form of transport. I marvel at the difference between my current 24 speed environmentally hostile carbon fibre job, and my steel 3 speed Sturmer Archer one I had as a teenager.
I usually undo any benefits by picking up a couple of Croissants at Lidl on the way home. Best ones this side of the Channel.
But it makes Dr Hilaire’s bike ride effort test easier.
If we stopped all this carbon zero lark there would be plenty of money for social care.
Quite. I have written to my MP on these lines. i think we should all do that and let them know that there is an alternative to higher axes – cut spending.
Dear Rachel, the Torygraph’s “Energy Correspondent”. Formerly crime correspondent at the Argus.
Her LinkedIn profile doesn’t mention her qualifications.
She has qualifications?
Nice to see Holland happy to run their coal to supply us 1GW – how long will EU tolerate that I wonder.
Also wind is in the doldrums across Northern Europe currently
NL 0.69% of capacity
BE 1.12% of capacity
GE 1.04% of capacity or 1GW out of 63GW!!
DE 3.36% of capacity
FR a respectable 15.73% guess it benefits from being on Atlantic
courtesy of https://www.electricitymap.org/map
The French have built these things right across the country there are a large number in the Orléans area. They have them in low wind areas.
Not popular with all residents. Many I’ve spoken to say “I don’t like them but it’s for the climate” gallic shrug
It’s why they call it the Vendee I suppose 🙂
Facts: Cuadrilla expected to flow more than 1MMCFD from their wells. The smallest economical (typicall Marcellus) is 600 MCFD. Their test flowed steadily 60-100 MCFD and they upped the frack to a 2.9 earth disturbance (vs the agreed 0.5) but still the gas didn’t flow. Sensibly the government put a moratorium on more fracking. Cuadrilla (or their owners) are appealing omn the basis that they did not create a dangerous disturbance but nowhere allows fracking to 2.9. I have many times drawn a parallel with Geo Soros’s San Leon Energy’s very promising prospect in Poland where the gas simply didn’t flow and the effort was quickly abandoned.
Source your claims. BTW, geothermal has a licence to go to ML 4.
It doesn’t…. Unfortunately the comprehensive paper on Cuadrilla’s tests which I saved has been taken down. Now it is a matter of scrolling through looking for the information in scraps, but it is all more or less there. I too am intersted in your source for geothermal which is entirely contradictory, but we are used to that from this government, aren’t we?
By the way, to those who reacted so negatively to my posts, let me say that I am entirely in favour of fracking for shale gas and believe it could have been our future if it was viable but we shouldn’t delude ourselves – it is difficult and unpredictable to produce because of the great variations in permeability of shale. We could argue till Hell freezes whether the 0.5 ML limit was reasonable – personally I think it was too low, but that’s not the issue. Cuadrilla blatantly broke their agreement and got punished accordingly. By the way, also, all this grief could have been avoided if the government, early on, had supported Cuadrilla financially and socially to drill, frack and test their first wells. But that’s water under the bridge now.
idau
the geothermal crew swerve a lot more regulation and limits …
It simply stinks
@Vernon “water under the bridge” – eh?
The gas is still there and when push comes to shove – which might well be gas or revolt – I suspect gubbermint will choose gas….
Rasa
Unless they have been granted a contract to generate when instructed and are able to retain their specialised workforce, they won’t have ‘maintained’ plant poorly. They won’t have maintained the plant at all.
Why the Hell would they?
The Genius Beloved Leaders decided years ago that reliable, very WELL maintained coal fired plant producing cheap and ample electricity were much better replaced by tarted up C.15th technology, entirely weather dependent and extortionately expensive.
What could go wrong?
We’ve had ample warnings. Now we will find out in a way obvious to the meanest intelligence.
Vernon E
It is not the case that Cuadrilla failed.
They got stopped in their tracks by Potato Ed’s absurd regulations.
The Richter 2.9 event you berate them for is around the level of seismic activity sufficient to rattle a tea cup. There are seismic events (entirely natural) on a monthly basis in the UK and few people even notice. Long wall coal mining frequently gave rise to tremors around 4.0 (an order of magnitude greater, but it was differential subsidence at the sides of the panel of coal extracted that caused problems (which were resolved), not seimic effects.
The frackers didn’t request any subsidies and would have paid billions in taxes if they had been allowed to continue and were successful. (As they very likely would have been).
Entirely unlike renewables.
Vernon:
The entire Alice in Wonderland UK political system comes down to earth – what next?
Here’s what’s been happening to day ahead electricity prices:
https://image.vuukle.com/9ffc6604-feed-474e-a82d-c2de2f561502-fda6c3eb-dc6e-4498-a9d8-fdd11e47b02b
Yesterday we reached £225/MWh – almost double last week’s average
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/09/06/jcb-heir-launches-1bn-fund-put-britain-forefront-hydrogen-revolution/
what could possibly go wrong
There is a sleight of hand coming your way.
Having closed nearly all the coal fired capacity, government rules have manufactured a tight supply margin, and prices are picking up. Maybe we will even get some rationing (rota disconnection) to make the case for new firm generating capacity.
The government will then compare new nuclear (expensive and fairly risky) to either gas+CCUS (expensive and very risky) or CCGT+H2 (really expensive and very risky). The case will be made to provide financial support for another nuclear power station.
At no point will the new nuclear power station (expensive and fairly risky) be compared to unabated gas or coal fired generating capacity (economic and normal industry risk).
Plausible. But the problem with mucking it up, on purpose or not, is they leave private concerns unwilling to deal with them. Perfidious albion.
More madness – National Grid were running tests at up to 1.4GW on the new Norway interconnector in export mode during yesterday’s price spike, adding to the shortages and prices!
Better version of the chart
A write-up of the factors that have driven power prices sky high:
https://www.current-news.co.uk/news/the-perfect-shoulder-month-storm-power-prices-spike-to-record-highs
A lump of coal in your stocking at Christmas.
Bringing in a lump of coal on new years eve.
Good traditions for many a year.
I wonder why ?