The UK’s record-breaking run without coal power passed another milestone yesterday, as National Grid ESO confirmed the grid had completed a full month without any input from the country’s coal-fired power stations. In a tweet yesterday morning, the grid operator announced that as of 12am on Sunday the country had completed 30 days, seven hours, and 36 minutes without coal power. The record-breaking coal-free run is set to continue with a combination of forecast blustery and sunny weather conditions and depressed energy demand due to the UK’s on-going home-working guidelines expected to mean demand for fossil fuel power remains lower than usual for several more weeks at least.
In a separate update, energy supplier Drax confirmed that low carbon energy sources provided around 70 per cent of the UK’s power during the month when coal was kept offline. Gas power plants made the single biggest contribution delivering 30 per cent of the mix during the 30 day period, but nuclear provided 21 per cent, wind 18 per cent, biomass nine per cent, and solar eight per cent. Imports delivered 11 per cent of the mix, while hydro and pumped storage facilities provided 1.5 per cent.
The UK is committed to phasing out the use of the coal power by 2025 at the latest and the past few months have seen two further coal plants close and an announcement that the Kilroot plant in Northern Ireland will be converted to run on gas. National Grid has also announced an ambition to be able to operate a fully zero emission grid when weather conditions allow from 2025, as renewables capacity and smart grid functionality increases further to enable the side-lining of gas power plants when possible.
Source: Business Green
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