The Drax Power Station helps generate £1.7 billion for the UK economy and supports more than 18,500 jobs each year.

In a study of the biomass and coal-fired plant’s impacts, researchers at Oxford Economics found this contribution increased by 34% year-on-year following the firm’s acquisition of corporate power supplier Opus Energy.

The facility, which provides power to around six million homes, uses a range of British businesses across its supply chain and employs workers in the manufacture of industrial components, engineering, construction, IT, professional business services and transport.

Around £419 million is generated in Yorkshire and the Humber, where the power station is located, with a further £232 million created in the East of England, where on of the company’s business retail suppliers, Haven Power, is based.

The main other areas in which the firm boosts GDP are in Wales, Scotland and the South West.

Drax Group CEO, Dorothy Thompson, said: “With the power station’s sophisticated supply chain and our growing retail business, we are making a positive economic contribution in every region of the UK.”