Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what information his Department holds on the planned shutdown date for Hartlepool nuclear power station; what estimate his Department has made of the average electricity generation capacity of that power station; and what plans his Department has to replace that capacity.
The decision to close a nuclear power station is a matter for the operator and the Office for Nuclear Regulation.
EDF Energy’s published closure dates and the generating capacity for power stations is set out in the following table.
Power station | EDF Energy’s published closure date | Generating capacity |
Dungeness B | June 2021 | No longer generating |
Hinkley Point B | July 2022 | 965 MW |
Hartlepool | 2024 | 1,185 MW |
Heysham 1 | 2024 | 1,060 MW |
Torness | 2030 | 1,200 MW |
Heysham 2 | 2030 | 1,240 MW |
The Government confirmed in the Energy White Paper that it aims to bring at least one large-scale nuclear project beyond Hinkley Point C to a Final Investment Decision by the end of this Parliament (subject to clear value-for-money and all relevant approvals), and that it will provide up to £385m in an Advanced Nuclear Fund (subject to future Spending Reviews) for the next generation of nuclear technology aiming, by the early 2030s, to develop a Small Modular Reactor design and to build an Advanced Modular Reactor demonstrator.
The Capacity Market ensures security of electricity supply by providing all forms of capacity the right incentives to be on the system and to deliver electricity when needed. It secures the capacity we need, including new capacity to replace aging power stations as they retire, through auctions held four-and one-year ahead of delivery (T-4 and T-1). The Capacity Market has brought forward over 13 GW of new build generation and interconnectors to date.