Another one to bite the dust

Well if you are supposed to live in interesting times then it looks as though the next few winters could border on completely fascinating. I say this because of the news last night that SSE are thinking of shutting down another conventional power station.

Energy giant SSE is considering shutting its Fiddler's Ferry coal-fired power plant early, threatening to blow a hole in the Government’s plans to keep the lights on, the Telegraph has learnt.

The 2GW power plant in Cheshire produces enough electricity to power two million homes and in 2014 secured a subsidy contract with the Government to guarantee three of the plant’s four units would be available to generate in 2018-19.

Is it to early to describe the capacity market as an unmitigated disaster?

Comments

[Robinson]

Don't worry about it. The chickens are coming home to roost for our spectacularly imbecilic politicians on this and many other issues.

It was fun while it lasted.

[tomo]

While unthreaded gets "vaccinated"

This thread seems a better place to drop this -

Utility Week trade journal has some observations about diesel generation consequent from upping the provision by 60% in one year in the capacity market.

"dirty generation in the capacity market"

There are some other interesting observations there about the STOR bandits - no mention however of the eco-green-blobby affiliations of the diesel genset operators .....

So - a lottery where the taxpayer buys your tickets and you simply have to wait for the wind to stop blowing.

[Frank]

This article reminds me of the California energy crisis in 2000, when private generators found ways to suppress the supply of electricity when generation capacity was short. Every large coal generating plant now has the ability to threaten to close early and turn off some lights in Britain unless they are paid more.