Britain is currently taking electricity from the West Burton A coal-fired power plant operated by the French energy company EDF. “Two units helped to stabilize the transmission system and secure supplies,” he confirmed, according to the station Sky News EDF spokesperson.
Within a year at this time, the facility should be definitively decommissioned. So far, however, it is still used for cases where weather-dependent renewables are unable to supply enough electricity to the grid. Currently, the fault of high pressure in the northwest of the continent is to blame, causing no wind. Turbines thus produce less than five percent of electricity, last year’s average was eighteen percent.
Coal is only a negligible part of the British energy mix, accounting for 1.6 percent last year. Five years ago, it was a quarter. ESO’s National Grid, which ensures the stability of the transmission system, said coal currently accounts for three percent of electricity. At the same time, the country expects to put an end to this fossil resource in 2024.
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Now the British have taken the coal at their mercy for reasons other than windlessness. Another is the high prices of natural gas due to the high demand related to the post-period recovery of economies. Due to the cold weather at the beginning of the year, many countries also consumed a large part of stocks, which have not yet been sufficiently replenished.
Deliveries from Russia are stagnating, as Gazprom wants to Bloombergu by the winter to create unprecedented reserves in their reservoirs, probably in fear of another extreme weather. In practice, this means that they have to store a volume of gas equal to 80% of deliveries to Europe every day, the agency calculates, with the fact that achieving this goal takes precedence over exports. In addition, the old continent is vying for gas with Asia.
European countries are thus looking forward to the approaching cold months, and natural gas is breaking seasonal records in many markets. “The problem has just begun, Europe is facing a very tense winter,” warned Julien Hoarau of EnergyScan, an offshoot of the French energy company Engie.
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The combination of expensive gas and lack of wind energy is affecting other countries, so importing electricity is not a suitable solution for Britain. In Germany, for example, the price of electricity is around ninety euros per megawatt-hour, which is roughly double the beginning of the year and the highest level since 2008, when oil prices were very high. Energy bills thus contribute a lot to rising inflation.
The launch of a coal-fired power plant in Britain has already sparked a debate about what insurance the country will have against the fluctuations in electricity generation after leaving coal. The Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) said it needed to invest in new nuclear resources.
“Otherwise, we will have to continue to burn coal as a backup source and remain far behind our ambitions to achieve carbon neutrality,” he said. BBC NIA representative Tom Greatrex.
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