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Bloomberg
National Grid Plc again requested that coal-fired power units prepare for service to bolster the network’s spare capacity, then called off the notice as it has done previously.
The grid asked three coal stations to warm in the early hours, before cancelling the request for Electricite de France SA’s unit at West Burton shortly after 5 am local time and Drax Group Plc’s two units just after 11 am.
It’s the third time in four days that the grid operator has called on the nation’s coal-fired reserve to warm up, increasing available supply as a cold snap boosts demand and wind output drops. In all cases, it’s stopped short of actually using the plants. National Grid also asked some UK households to curb power use earlier this week during peak hours.
The steps taken by the grid offer a stark reminder that Europe’s power crunch isn’t over, and highlight the danger of the UK’s steadily shrinking generation buffer. That makes the nation more reliant on imports from France, which is struggling with its own nuclear crisis and can’t export as much as it used to.
Wind generation is set to decline in the coming days, before rising again on January 29, according to a Bloomberg model.