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National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) has ordered winter contingency coal units to fire up and be available on Tuesday (7 March) in anticipation of tight supply margins.
The ESO has ordered EDF to fire up its two 400MW units at its West Burton A site ready for use on Tuesday afternoon. On Monday night Drax was also asked to ready two 570MW assets at its power station in North Yorkshire.
It comes as the ESO issued its latest electricity margin notice, warning of a potential 980MW shortfall in supply on Tuesday evening. This alerts the energy market of the need for more generation – or less demand – and signals to participants that higher-than-usual payments will be available. As of 10pm on Monday, the ESO was predicting a contingency requirement of 700MW.
The ESO has five winter contingency coal units for potential use during times of high demand between October and March.
As well as the West Burton and Drax sites it has a 480MW unit at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station available for use.
It comes as the latest forecasts from the Met Office include a yellow weather warning for Monday and Tuesday, with heavy snow predicted for some parts of the UK.
An ESO spokesperson said on Tuesday morning: “The ESO has issued a notification that we will warm four of our five winter contingency coal units for potential use on Tuesday 7 March. This notification is not confirmation that the unit will be used on Tuesday, but that it 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 supplies are at risk.“
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