A Nottinghamshire power station is on standby as hot weather is set to cause rising demand for electricity to power air conditioning. Operators of the coal-fired plant in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Uniper, have confirmed the site has been asked to be on standby.
The Met Office is forecasting a hot and dry week for Nottingham, with highs of 28°C expected. Parts of the UK also recorded the country's hottest day of the year so far over the weekend.
With the warm conditions set to continue, the National Grid's electricity system operator (ESO) is expecting extra demand as homes and businesses turn air conditioning units on. The ESO therefore made the standby request to Uniper early on Monday (June 12).
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The news provoked criticism from some, with Greenpeace UK tweeting: "National Grid has requested a coal-fired power station in the East Midlands to be warmed up - to cope with more people using air conditioners. We're using more coal to cool down the effects of the coal we're using. It makes no sense."
Former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett also wrote: "That would be a bad feedback loop. Let's talk about building and retrofitting buildings for the climate emergency."
Ratcliffe-on-Soar's station is due to close next September under Government plans to end the use of coal power in Britain by October 2024. As part of preparations for the closure, one of the four units on the site was due to close in 2022.
But an agreement was signed to keep that unit operational until the end of March this year. This was then extended to a September 2024 closure in line with the rest of the station.
Kwasi Kwarteng, then Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said at the time of the original Ratcliffe extension being agreed: ""If we have available back-up power, let's keep it online just in case. I'm not taking chances. For our long-term energy security, we're accelerating renewables and nuclear - while maximising North Sea oil and gas production."
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