EDF nuclear plants closed until winter amid blackout fears

Posted by Unknown on Thursday, September 4, 2014


"Dates for returning the stations to service depend on the findings and completion of the inspections," said EDF Energy in statement. The plants affected are Heysham 1 in Lancashire and a station in Hartlepool.




The news comes after it emerged this week that emergency measures to fire up mothballed power stations could be used to keep the lights on this winter, after a series of power plant fires and closures left Britain more vulnerable to blackouts.




National Grid announced on Tuesday that it would begin recruiting idle or mothballed power plants, which would be paid to ensure they could fire up if needed as a "last resort".


The Grid had said in June that the emergency plan to boost power supplies would not be needed this year. However, it has resorted to using it because five of the power plants it had expected to be running this winter are now shut down or are in doubt.


In June, energy regulator Ofgem estimated there would be between 2.7 gigawatts (GW) and 5.4GW of spare operational power plants on the system – a capacity margin of between 5pc-10pc over and above peak winter demand.


Two nuclear power plants have been temporarily shut down amid safety fears, two coal-fired power plant units have been partially shut after fires, and one gas-fired power plant unit is being shut because it is unprofitable.





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