Drax pays £10m to mix biomass with coal

Mark Milner, industrial editor
The Guardian,
Thursday October 2 2008

Drax, Britain's biggest coal-fired power station, said yesterday it had bought equipment that will cut its carbon dioxide emissions by more than 2.5m tonnes a year.
It has signed a £10m contract with Doosan Babcock Energy for direct-injection biomass co-firing systems for all six of the coal-fired units at its 4,000-megawatt plant in North Yorkshire.
The new facility, which will allow Drax to mix renewable biomass materials - such as straw, wood and food and agricultural residues - with coal will be the largest of its kind in the world.
Drax's chief executive, Dorothy Thompson, said the deal was a critical step in the development of its co-firing project. The combination of the new facility and Drax's existing co-firing capability would give the company a total renewable capacity of 500 megawatts, "making us the largest single-site renewable generator in the UK".
"We are only too well aware of the need to tackle climate change and the competence we have developed in biomass procurement and project execution means that we are able to play our part in the move towards a low-carbon economy, while at the same time delivering reliable and secure supplies of electricity."
Drax said it was making good progress on upgrading its turbines to increase their efficiency. The project, when completed, is expected to cut another million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Drax said the combination of greater turbine efficiency and increased bio-mass capability would cut its annual emissions by more than 15% by 2011.
Drax supplies about 7% of Britain's electricity, making it a crucial part of the country's supply infrastructure.
The energy industry regulator, Ofgem, is expected to publish National Grid's winter forecast for gas and electricity supplies today. It is expected to be sanguine about the industry's ability to meet the country's needs over the coming winter but is expected to warn against complacency and to highlight Britain's increasing exposure to global energy markets.
Wholesale power prices have risen sharply this week on concern over generating margins. "It is important to note that the current price issues are based on specific short-term factors," said Ian Parrett, marketing manager of power broker Inenco. "While concerns remain for supply margins in future years, it is expected that the situation will ease in the new year. This is supported by prices for 2009 contracts, which have eased in the last few days as the market waits for direction from the US bail-out negotiations."
Market sources suggested the wholesale price for November had been driven higher by demand from one of the country's electricity generators. Wholesale gas prices continue to fall on growing confidence over future supply.