Opinion piece – UK Coal

The closure of Wales’ last coal plant now halves to 4 (in a single year) the number of remaining UK coal power stations being kept on standby as a price-hedge in case of a surge in European gas prices (the only reason that the National Grid has been keeping coal in our energy mix).
https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/08/09/sse-secures-capacity-contracts-from-rwes-aberthaw-b-coal-plant/ I suppose the cost of keeping them on standby could be tracked, but tracking actual coal usage in our energy mix is very much yesteryear’s story (barring a collapse in the UK Carbon Tax on coal – the governmental approach responsible for forcing coal out of our energy mix). The real story of the past year has been how the Carbon Intensity of the UK grid has been impacted by the persistent unplanned shutdowns of various old nuclear plants (notably the Hunstanton and Dungeness extended ones, with various other shorter-lived shutdowns). The fact that Mygridgb still speaks of ‘new nuclear plants’ as a factor in the falling number of coal plants only further emphasises how out-of-date the site is. It needs a wholesale rewrite to bring it up-to-date, and before the new IFA2 interconnector from France becomes the new (imports) factor in the UK grid energy mix next summer.

Guest contribution from Roger Thompson