Rudd confirms coal closures by 2025

Energy secretary Amber Rudd has promised to cut unabated coal-fired power from the UK generation mix by 2025 as part of her energy policy ‘reset’ to be announced later this morning.

Under the plans, the use of coal plants will be restricted from 2023 and shut by 2025, a government statement said on Wednesday morning.

“It cannot be satisfactory for an advanced economy like the UK to be relying on polluting, carbon intensive 50-year-old coal-fired power stations. Let me be clear: this is not the future,” Rudd said.

“We need to build a new energy infrastructure, fit for the 21st century.”

UK coal plants have already begun to close under EU emissions regulation and due to uneconomic market conditions, and it was already assumed that fleet would dissappear in the early years of the next decade.

Energy analyst with Jefferries, Peter Atherton, said the governemnt’s committment does not change energy policy “in any meaningful way”.

“Whilst this is the first time the government has put a specific date on the closure of the coal fleet, the assumption underlying UK energy policy for many years has been that coal would be phased out by the mid part of the next decade,” he said.

In December 2013 Baroness Verma told the House of Lords: “All sides in this debate can agree that we neither expect nor desire large amounts of unabated coal to be operating in the 2020s.”

Rudd is expected to back an increase in gas-fired power generation which, alongside nuclear plants, could secure the UK’s power supplies in the next decade.

Utility Week understands that support for offshore wind generation may also feature in the reset speech, although Rudd will continue to stress the importance of moving away from long-term subsidies for renewable energy.

The coal shutdowns are set to raise questions over the UK’s security of supply. According to trade association Energy UK, coal generated about 30 per cent of UK electricity last year, more than nuclear and renewables.

With the new nuclear rollout to begin operations in 2025 at the earliest – assuming the Hinkley Point project is constructed to schedule – the UK could face a looming supply gap unless investment in gas-fired power comes forward.

Rudd said she is “determined” to ensure that the UK has secure, affordable energy supplies.

“We are tackling a legacy of underinvestment and ageing power stations which we need to replace with alternatives that are reliable, good value for money, and help to reduce our emissions,” she said.