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Drax to convert fourth unit to biomass
UK utility Drax is to convert a fourth 645MW unit to 100pc biomass firing at its Selby power plant.
The unit will be converted to biomass during a planned outage in the second half of this year and will return to service in late 2018, Drax said.
Drax in February 2017 scheduled a planned outage at the unit from 14 June to 24 August this year.
The decision follows the results of a UK government consultation to control the cost of support for biomass under the Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme through a cap on the amount of renewable obligation certificates (ROCs) which could be earned ‘non-grandfathered' units accredited under the RO scheme.
The consultation also considered cutting support levels for 'non-grandfathered' units.
"Neither of the proposed options commanded broad support," the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) said. But "the proposed rebanding of support levels could lead to increased coal generation ahead of the 2025 end date for unabated coal, compared with the ‘do nothing' scenario," it said. The government has decided to implement an amended version of the generator cap.
A cap of 125,000 ROCs will be applied per RO-eligible non-grandfathered unit per obligation year. Stations will be able to optimise generation across units and decide whether they use a single unit or more than one unit to generate up to the level of their station cap.
At stations comprising grandfathered and non-grandfathered units, grandfathered units will continue to earn ROCs in line with their existing entitlement. Generation can also be optimised between units so that if grandfathered units produce less than set out in the annual forecast published by Beis, the remainder of the forecast ROCs can be allocated to a non-grandfathered unit in addition to the unit's cap.
This approach will allow units to operate at times of high system demand and low intermittent renewable output, Beis said.
The government will also revise grandfathering policy so that grandfathered status is not lost by a temporary drop in biomass use for converted and dedicated biomass units. Grandfathered biomass conversion units and dedicated biomass stations will only lose their grandfathered status if they use more than 15pc fossil fuel averaged across a six month period.
Drax's biomass-fired units 2 and 3 have grandfathered RO subsidies, while its biomass-fired unit 1 operates under the contracts for difference (CFD) subsidy scheme. Unit 4 is RO accredited but is not grandfathered under the scheme, so the cap will apply. Drax tested biomass at unit 4 for much of last summer.
"We welcome the government's support for further sustainable biomass generation at Drax, which will allow us to accelerate the removal of coal from the electricity system, replacing it with flexible low-carbon renewable electricity", Drax chief executive Will Gardiner said.
The unit is likely to operate at lower availability than the three existing 645MW biomass units, but the intention is to run it at periods of high demand.
The government intends to bring the ROC cap into force in 2018-19 but the full cap will apply for the remainder of the year, regardless of when it is introduced.
And while the cap will limit the amount of RO support affected stations can receive each year, generation above that supported by the cap can still be sold into the wholesale market.
"Biomass conversions play an important transitional role in decarbonising the grid," Beis said.
Argus Biomass
