Drax Output to be Reduced after 2027

[LNW-GW Joint]

The contract for producing electricity from biomass fuel at Drax has been revised for the four years 2027-31.
It will become a hot standby in that period, generating electricity when the grid needs it rather than continuously as base load, becoming mainly a winter generator.
Fuel (wood pellets) must also be from 100% sustainable sources rather than the current 70%.
Subsidies will also be halved.

This would seem to reduce the flow of wood pellets to Drax in the warmer months.
The direction of travel suggests the burning of wood pellets could well end after 2031, with other greener sources of power then online (including new nuclear capacity).

From what I have read, the wood pellets come from the Mississippi basin (Baton Rouge), also with some Pacific north-west content.
While current transport methods involving rail from Liverpool and Port of Tyne will be unaffected in the short term, long term production may be in doubt.
Drax plans to capture the carbon it produces, which may become a big factor in its future.

Today, according to Gridwatch, Drax is producing 3.2 GW of power, about 8% of the current demand of 43 GW on a cold winter's day.
Wind is producing 14.5 GW.

Controversial Drax power station gets more government subsidies

The government has agreed a new subsidy arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station in north Yorkshire.

www.bbc.co.uk

The government has agreed a new funding arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station that it says will cut subsidies in half.
The power station, a converted coal plant in north Yorkshire, generates about 5% of the UK's electricity and has received billions of pounds from the government and bill-payers because wood pellets are classed as a source of renewable energy.
Though there are plans to eventually capture the carbon emitted from Drax, its emissions from burning the pellets are currently unabated.
Critics of the power station have called it one of the UK's leading emitters of the climate warming gas CO2, but Drax disputes that description.
It argues that burning wood is carbon neutral because when trees are cut down for fuel, new trees can be planted that effectively re-absorb the carbon dioxide released.
The new agreement will run from 2027 to 2031 and will see the power station only used as a back-up to cheaper renewable sources of power.
The government says that will mean that when there's lots of wind and solar, Drax won't run at all.

 

[HSTEd]

Capacity factor will be 27% or below, apparently.


That seems likely to take a huge chunk out of the biomass requirement. As far as I can tell the current capacity factor is more like 60% - so biomass requirements will be cut by half.

 

[Chester1]

Capacity factor will be 27% or below, apparently.


That seems likely to take a huge chunk out of the biomass requirement. As far as I can tell the current capacity factor is more like 60% - so biomass requirements will be cut by half.

It's rare good governance in the UK. There are a lot of question marks over biomass but closing Drax would leave very little room for late delivery of renewable projects. Halving the number of freight services to Drax will help reliability of passenger services and won't meaningfully affect the finances of NR.

 

[jfowkes]

Drax plans to capture the carbon it produces, which may become a big factor in its future.

My prediction: it won't, because carbon capture is a complete non-starter of a technology and a desperate attempt to prop up power generation methods that need to just die.

 

[HSTEd]

It's rare good governance in the UK. There are a lot of question marks over biomass but closing Drax would leave very little room for late delivery of renewable projects. Halving the number of freight services to Drax will help reliability of passenger services and won't meaningfully affect the finances of NR.

Well I wonder how many of the freight paths associated with biomass services will actually be removed from the timetable.

Drax only has 300,000 tonnes of biomass storage capacity, which will rapidly be burned through if the plant is called upon to operate. Given they burn something like 7 million tonnes of pellets now at ~60% capaicty factor, it will be burned through in days at full power.

So I think they will likely need a very similar number of paths available as now.

 

[slipdigby]

Well I wonder how many of the freight paths associated with biomass services will actually be removed from the timetable.

Drax only has 300,000 tonnes of biomass storage capacity, which will rapidly be burned through if the plant is called upon to operate. Given they burn something like 7 million tonnes of pellets now at ~60% capaicty factor, it will be burned through in days at full power.

So I think they will likely need a very similar number of paths available as now.

Paths≠trains run, which is a (the?) significant factor in overall network performance as per Chester1's point.

 

[paul1609]

The contract for producing electricity from biomass fuel at Drax has been revised for the four years 2027-31.
It will become a hot standby in that period, generating electricity when the grid needs it rather than continuously as base load, becoming mainly a winter generator.
Fuel (wood pellets) must also be from 100% sustainable sources rather than the current 70%.
Subsidies will also be halved.

This would seem to reduce the flow of wood pellets to Drax in the warmer months.
The direction of travel suggests the burning of wood pellets could well end after 2031, with other greener sources of power then online (including new nuclear capacity).

From what I have read, the wood pellets come from the Mississippi basin (Baton Rouge), also with some Pacific north-west content.
While current transport methods involving rail from Liverpool and Port of Tyne will be unaffected in the short term, long term production may be in doubt.
Drax plans to capture the carbon it produces, which may become a big factor in its future.

Today, according to Gridwatch, Drax is producing 3.2 GW of power, about 8% of the current demand of 43 GW on a cold winter's day.
Wind is producing 14.5 GW.

Controversial Drax power station gets more government subsidies

The government has agreed a new subsidy arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station in north Yorkshire.

www.bbc.co.uk

Theres absolutely no chance of new additional nuclear capacity being on line by 2031, in fact its almost certainly the case that nuclear generation will have reduced by then.

 

[Class 170101]

Well I wonder how many of the freight paths associated with biomass services will actually be removed from the timetable.

Drax only has 300,000 tonnes of biomass storage capacity, which will rapidly be burned through if the plant is called upon to operate. Given they burn something like 7 million tonnes of pellets now at ~60% capaicty factor, it will be burned through in days at full power.

So I think they will likely need a very similar number of paths available as now.

Additionally its been stated previously that wood is harder to store so the paths will be needed still such as to operate on a just in time basis.

Personally I am not convinced that this is the right way to go. I'd rather burn biomass (at the moment) than turn to nuclear. It has too many risks for my liking.

 

[trawler]

Trains also come from Hull Docks and Immingham.

 

[generalnerd]

Trains also come from Hull Docks and Immingham.

Although it’s very rare, I don’t think it’s even daily anymore, at least for Hull

 

[31160]

I wonder what this will mean for the GBRF class 60 fleet, they seam to use them on the run over from Liverpool

 

[John R]

There will have to be some very clever anticipation of demand given the storage time of the pellets then. They won't be able to snap their fingers and get a ship load imported at short notice if there is a long period of weather that reduces wind output.

I'm pleased though, as there have been too many stories of deforestation of "original" forest to meet demand for me to be comfortable with the whole concept of burning pellets.

 

[Ian79]

I suspect this has been on the cards for a while, given that environmental benefit of burning millions of tonnes of wood imported from the other side of the world instead of coal turned out to not be at all that great.
The plant itself must be coming to the end of its life too, given that it was a converted 1970s coal fired station rather than newly constructed.
Of course, the short term solution to releasing train paths, until other generating capacity comes online, would be to dig a large hole in the ground not far outside the power station. They could then transport the still fairly abundant locally available coal on a merry-go-round train. It probably wouldn't be particularly cost effective or environmentally sound though so I suspect we're stuck with lots of trains of wood pellets still travelling across the network until it closes........

 

[mac]

Although it’s very rare, I don’t think it’s even daily anymore, at least for Hull

They get roughly 1 every 90 minutes from Immingham

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

They get roughly 1 every 90 minutes from Immingham

Today, there are more loaded trains from Immingham to Drax than from Liverpool, of a similar weight (2400t).
Is this typical, or is Immingham (and Tyne Yard/Hull) used as a backup to Liverpool at busy times?
Despite the convoluted route, Immingham is much closer to Drax (the Liverpool route being even more convoluted...).
Does it depend on shipping schedules and routes?

Realtime Trains | Departures from Drax Branch Junction all day on 11/02/2025

Train information at Drax Branch Junction all day on 11/02/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[mac]

They start Drax to Immingham early afternoon on Sunday and run continuously until late Saturday afternoon, the only time they stop is when they have work to do at Immingham and on the 6 weekly night possession

 

[Freightmaster]

I wonder what this will mean for the GBRF class 60 fleet, they seem to use them on the run over from Liverpool

Only during RHTT (leaf fall) season in Autumn - 66s are used from Liverpool the rest of the year.

60s are the regular year-round traction for biomass trains from Tyne Dock to Drax and Blyth.

 

[70014IronDuke]

... Wind is producing 14.5 GW.

Controversial Drax power station gets more government subsidies

The government has agreed a new subsidy arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station in north Yorkshire.

www.bbc.co.uk

Is it? Surely that should read: Wind is producting on average [or just last year?] 14.5 GW - cos if it ain't blowing, it ain't producing, is it?

It continually gets my goat when I read the likes of: The new wind farm will produce X GWh per year, enough to power Y homes.

It's BS. It may produce enough electricity over the year to power the total conumption of Y homes, but it can't be guaranteed to supply Y homes 24/7.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Is it? Surely that should read: Wind is producting on average [or just last year?] 14.5 GW - cos if it ain't blowing, it ain't producing, is it?
It continually gets my goat when I read the likes of: The new wind farm will produce X GWh per year, enough to power Y homes.
It's BS. It may produce enough electricity over the year to power the total conumption of Y homes, but it can't be guaranteed to supply Y homes 24/7.

Well, you just have to check Gridwatch: https://gridwatch.co.uk/
Wind is very variable, and has been almost flat calm at times this winter (<1 GW); today it is at 10 GW, of total demand 43 GW which is typical of a weekday.
Solar is even more variable, and often wind+solar is around 10GW.
Gas is often 50% of the power generated (eg today it is at 20GW), more when wind is low.
Nuclear is a steady 4 GW, usually a bit more than Drax's steady 3GW.
Interconnectors can deliver about 6GW (although they sometimes work the other way).
We typically export about at about 1GW to Ireland.
Pumped storage hydro can deliver around 2GW during peak hours.

 

[Adrian Barr]

There were an impressive 20 trains into Drax yesterday - 12 from Immingham, 5 from Liverpool and 3 from Tyne Dock.

Today, there are more loaded trains from Immingham to Drax than from Liverpool, of a similar weight (2400t).
Is this typical, or is Immingham (and Tyne Yard/Hull) used as a backup to Liverpool at busy times?
Despite the convoluted route, Immingham is much closer to Drax (the Liverpool route being even more convoluted...).
Does it depend on shipping schedules and routes?

Hull tends to be a backup for Immingham (occasionally you get a week where all the Immingham trains run to Hull instead, probably due to planned plant maintenance). There is usually a mix of Liverpool / Tyne / Immingham trains operating on any given day - I think a single terminal would struggle to load all the trains and it gives greater security of supply to spread the services between 3 ports.

There's a good 2017 article on the biomass trains from the Railway Magazine: https://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/3162/from-our-archive-power-trip-inside-drax/

With much of the biomass being shipped across the Atlantic, although Liverpool is a longer rail journey to Drax, it's a shorter sea crossing.

Tyne can store 70,000 tonnes, Immingham 200,000 and Liverpool 100,000 tonnes. Hull can be used as a back up too, but has a smaller capacity of 30,000 tonnes.

...GB Railfreight has two contracts with Drax, one for moving biomass from Tyne, and the second (which began last year from Liverpool), linking with a shorter sea crossing. The third contract is with DB Cargo, which handles biomass imported to Immingham.

Because the supply chain is so critical, in a back office at the power station a team controls the flow of biomass. Monitoring usage and what is in store, they are in contact with the shipping companies and can ask them to speed up or slow down as appropriate, and could even change destination port. The North Atlantic weather plays a key part in this monitoring to ensure on-time deliveries.

Britain’s Victorian rail infrastructure is undergoing vast modernisation, and having a choice of route from the west or east coast ports to Drax means that a minimum of one option is always open should disruption occur, thus ensuring continuity of supply.

 

[Teaboy1]

May I draw your attension to the following;

Two power station owners to get more than £12m for three hours of electricity

Uniper and a subsidiary of Vitol able to charge 50 times recent market price to ensure supply during evening peak

www.theguardian.com

Seems on 8 January 2025, 2 x CCGT power plants held the National Grid to ransom..... !!

Basically no wind = no grid unless National Grid stump up £12m for 3 hours. Talk about the Green agenda !!

 

[GRALISTAIR]

My prediction: it won't, because carbon capture is a complete non-starter of a technology and a desperate attempt to prop up power generation methods that need to just die.

I perhaps would not go that far but do in general agree with your sentiments.

 

[Bald Rick]

Drax only has 300,000 tonnes of biomass storage capacity, which will rapidly be burned through if the plant is called upon to operate.

Drax has about 5 days‘s storage at full burn rate. There’s more at the docks.

There will have to be some very clever anticipation of demand given the storage time of the pellets then. They won't be able to snap their fingers and get a ship load imported at short notice if there is a long period of weather that reduces wind output.

There already is. Despite what is often thought, Drax has quite variable power generation, especially in the summer half of the year, and the pellet demand is tightly (and cleverly) managed. In winter it is usually on as baseload.

Wind is very variable, and has been almost flat calm at times this winter (<1 GW); today it is at 10 GW, of total demand 43 GW which is typical of a weekday.

43GW is anything but typical of a weekday; it is only typical of a cold weekday in the middle of winter. It’s fair to say it has happened quite a few days this winter, but typical day time demand is around 35GW.

As an aside, there are dozens of large Solar + Battery storage sites in the pipeline in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, including one that connects into the Grid at Drax itself. Between them they have well over twice the generating capacity of Drax, albeit obviously this varies through the day and year. However, with the battery capacity, they will replace Drax‘s output in the summer half of the year, and make a decent dent in the winter; even on a dull December day they will generate about 1GW in the middle of the day.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Feb 2025 ==

Basically no wind = no grid unless National Grid stump up £12m for 3 hours. Talk about the Green agenda !!

Thats how it is now. It won’t be the case in a couple of years. This is more a failing of National Grid processes than the generating mix. (Source, my mate who works for National Grid).

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

There will have to be some very clever anticipation of demand given the storage time of the pellets then. They won't be able to snap their fingers and get a ship load imported at short notice if there is a long period of weather that reduces wind output.

I'm pleased though, as there have been too many stories of deforestation of "original" forest to meet demand for me to be comfortable with the whole concept of burning pellets.

Drax has contracts to supply power so it has good idea of when it will be called upon to keep the stocks at the appropriate levels. The other ace card it has is its dispatchable power and when its less windy and dark NESO will have no choice but to call it onto the grid if it wants to keep the lights on. I suspect, like we had with coal a few years back, the contracts will ensure that sufficient wood pellet stock is on hand in the UK. Remember also gas is being squeezed out of the system and some of those plants are likely to be closing soon as the running hours of the inefficient sets are just too low for owners to justify keeping them for the odd occasion referred to above when there is a system stress event.

 

[Chester1]

Well I wonder how many of the freight paths associated with biomass services will actually be removed from the timetable.

Drax only has 300,000 tonnes of biomass storage capacity, which will rapidly be burned through if the plant is called upon to operate. Given they burn something like 7 million tonnes of pellets now at ~60% capaicty factor, it will be burned through in days at full power.

So I think they will likely need a very similar number of paths available as now.

Paths≠trains run, which is a (the?) significant factor in overall network performance as per Chester1's point.

That was my point. The best outcome for reliability for passengers services would be to have all the paths stay in the timetable but only half of them be used.

Is it? Surely that should read: Wind is producting on average [or just last year?] 14.5 GW - cos if it ain't blowing, it ain't producing, is it?

It continually gets my goat when I read the likes of: The new wind farm will produce X GWh per year, enough to power Y homes.

It's BS. It may produce enough electricity over the year to power the total conumption of Y homes, but it can't be guaranteed to supply Y homes 24/7.

It's slightly misleading but it works when combined with switching aging power stations to stand by contracts. The price of fuel has increased so much that it's better to duplicate infrastructure costs than rely on fossil fuels.

May I draw your attension to the following;

Two power station owners to get more than £12m for three hours of electricity

Uniper and a subsidiary of Vitol able to charge 50 times recent market price to ensure supply during evening peak

www.theguardian.com

Seems on 8 January 2025, 2 x CCGT power plants held the National Grid to ransom..... !!

Basically no wind = no grid unless National Grid stump up £12m for 3 hours. Talk about the Green agenda !!

Drax pushed this point as part of its campaign to get a new contract. They estimated that keeping Drax open will save bill payers hundreds of millions over 4 years because it will flood the market for standby power, making bids like those on 8th January much less likely to occur.

Drax has contracts to supply power so it has good idea of when it will be called upon to keep the stocks at the appropriate levels. The other ace card it has is its dispatchable power and when its less windy and dark NESO will have no choice but to call it onto the grid if it wants to keep the lights on. I suspect, like we had with coal a few years back, the contracts will ensure that sufficient wood pellet stock is on hand in the UK. Remember also gas is being squeezed out of the system and some of those plants are likely to be closing soon as the running hours of the inefficient sets are just too low for owners to justify keeping them for the odd occasion referred to above when there is a system stress event.

We are a long way off seeing gas power stations being switched off before they are life expired. In recent years coal power stations had stand by contracts prior to closure. Drax is following the same path. We are a long way off being able to power the country when it is dark and windless without gas and we haven't seen a new gas power station open in UK since 2012. Gas power stations will follow the same path of keeping them all open as long as possible but increasingly being switched to stand by contracts.

 

[HSTEd]

We are a long way off seeing gas power stations being switched off before they are life expired. In recent years coal power stations had stand by contracts prior to closure. Drax is following the same path. We are a long way off being able to power the country when it is dark and windless without gas and we haven't seen a new gas power station open in UK since 2012. Gas power stations will follow the same path of keeping them all open as long as possible but increasingly being switched to stand by contracts.

Keadby 2 (893MW) started construction in 2018 and commissioned in 2023.

Also it's likely that the existing CCGT fleet will be driven out of the standby market by new open cycle stations.

Once the capacity factor falls to standby duty levels, these traditional plants have become woefully uncompetitive.

However energy policy is such a mess these days that rational decisions are hard to come by.
The electricity market is collapsing under it's technical and economic limitations - as demonstrated by those gas plants.

 

[The Ham]

May I draw your attension to the following;

Two power station owners to get more than £12m for three hours of electricity

Uniper and a subsidiary of Vitol able to charge 50 times recent market price to ensure supply during evening peak

www.theguardian.com

Seems on 8 January 2025, 2 x CCGT power plants held the National Grid to ransom..... !!

Basically no wind = no grid unless National Grid stump up £12m for 3 hours. Talk about the Green agenda !!

The thing is, whilst they are much more expensive than wind and solar, there could be enough justification to build some hydro and tidal.

For example at £168/MWh for tidal to generate 33gwh of that would be a cost of £6 million a year.

 

[furnessvale]

There will have to be some very clever anticipation of demand given the storage time of the pellets then. They won't be able to snap their fingers and get a ship load imported at short notice if there is a long period of weather that reduces wind output.

I'm pleased though, as there have been too many stories of deforestation of "original" forest to meet demand for me to be comfortable with the whole concept of burning pellets.

As I understand it, new growth timber absorbs CO2 faster than mature trees. Properly managed with replanting, there should be a net zero increase in atmospheric CO2 levels in the medium term. Isn't that the whole basis of burning wood?

 

[John R]

As I understand it, new growth timber absorbs CO2 faster than mature trees. Properly managed with replanting, there should be a net zero increase in atmospheric CO2 levels in the medium term. Isn't that the whole basis of burning wood?

It's more the fact that Drax has been caught more than once burning wood that has not been obtained from approved sustainable sources in Canada in breach of its licence, and the deforestation that has been carried out to supply the wood is natural forest, rather than planted forest.

 

[Nottingham59]

This is the hourly biomass generation in January this year, from https://gridwatch.co.uk/Biomass

Nearly all of it will be Drax. In periods of low wind, Drax acts as a baseload plant, generating a steady 2.5 to 3GW or so. In windy periods, like 23-30 Jan, it acts more like a standby, switching between 1GW at night and 3GW during the day.