National Grid has said it has asked two coal power units to warm up in case they are needed on Tuesday during a period of low wind and plummeting temperatures.

This is part of National Grid ESO’s winter contingency contracts with coal power stations, including Drax power station in Yorkshire and EDF’s West Burton as a step to mitigate the risk of power cuts in periods of high demand.

The grid operator estimates that these contracts would cost up to £395 million and will be recovered through the Balancing Services Use of System (BSUoS) between 1st October 2022 and 31st March 2023.

On Sunday, National Grid ESO issued the first notification to warm one contingency coal unit and earlier today one more notification for a second coal unit was published.

On Monday morning, an ESO spokesperson said: “The ESO has issued a notification to warm a second of our five winter contingency coal units for potential use on Tuesday 7th February.

“This notification is not confirmation that the units will be used on Tuesday, but that they will be available to the ESO, if required. The ESO as a prudent system operator has developed these tools for additional contingency to operate the network as normal.

“This does not mean electricity suppliers are at risk.”

Article source: https://www.energylivenews.com/2023/02/06/national-grid-coal-fired-power-units-asked-to-warm-up/