Coal, gas, nuclear plants jostle for capacity auction cash

Large coal power plants as well as gas and nuclear have joined the queue for the capacity auction which will hand out cash on December. The revelation has stoked concerns raised over the […]

Large coal power plants as well as gas and nuclear have joined the queue for the capacity auction which will hand out cash on December.

The revelation has stoked concerns raised over the summer that coal will edge out gas power.

The capacity auction is meant to encourage investment in “cleaner” gas power, with the pre-Christmas auction lining up energy for the year 2018-19.

Four working coal plants, West Burton A, Eggborough, Cottam, and Ratcliffe coal plant which is being retrofitted will jockey for a role providing the UK with baseload power.

Gas plants such as Centrica’s Killingholme are also signed up to the capacity auction. All of EDF’s nuclear plants are pre-qualified.

Several Combined Heat and Power (CHP) projects have registered, with a fraction from demand side response (DSR) and hydropower projects.

On Friday National Grid said more capacity than is needed has pre-qualified with the National Grid, with 62 gigawatts (GW) signed up to bid in the Capacity Mechanism auctions. The grid operator was looking for 50.8GW.

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