National Grid shuts down coal power stations as France raises alarm

The National Grid has reportedly shut coal plants ordered to fire up on Thursday when the network operator of France raised the alarm about the implications of strike action.

Two plants at Drax in Yorkshire as well as one located at West Burton in Nottinghamshire were instructed to start up shortly before midnight on Wednesday. The Drax units were then notified that they were not going to be called into action when the West Burton facility was shut down at 5.13 am.

The National Grid's ESO (Electricity Supply Operator) had requested coal-fired plants to preheat for the third time within a week in case they were required. To prepare for any outages this winter, the units have been put on standby.

In recent days, National Grid is relentlessly working to balance U.K.’s energy supplies as it adapts to cooler, less windy weather that increases energy usage and decreases wind energy production.

The ESO stated that the current warm-up recommendation was not due to the latest cold weather in the U.K. Instead, it happened after the French grid operator RTE warned that help would be needed after learning of Thursday's general strike that was impacting electricity production and might place their system in an alert condition. They were later deemed unnecessary after research on network margins.

The energy supply of the United Kingdom and France are linked by undersea interconnector cables, which enable power to be transmitted between the nations when there is demand. According to the ESO, the coal power stations would have been able to contribute to France's energy production only if they had not been required to stop power outages in Great Britain.

Additionally, the National Grid began operating its demand flexibility service outside of testing this month. The program involves rewarding some homes with smart meters for their energy savings, which helps to lower peak demand and reduces the need to use more environmentally damaging power sources when consumption increases in the evenings. There are already incentives for some companies to consume less energy.

Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/26/national-grid-coal-power-stations-standby-cold-edf