Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, which power plants are expected to be decommissioned or closed in the next five years; what the expected year of closure for each such plant is; and what the individual generating capacity for each such plant expressed as a proportion of the total maximum UK demand for electricity is.

Decisions on the closure of individual power stations are a matter for their owners and are likely to take account of a wide range of factors, including the age of the plant and its condition; cost of maintenance; cost of necessary upgrades (for example to comply with environmental legislation), the plant’s profitability and competitive position in the market; and the extent to which the owner needs the capacity to meet contractual commitments.

The Department models the operation of the electricity market including the construction and decommissioning of plants as part of the analytical basis for supporting its policy decisions. This is published as the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) and Energy and Emissions Projections (EEP) available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes and https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/energy-and-emissions-projections respectively.

This modelling includes aggregated figures for total generation capacity by technology type for future years but does not provide information about specific plants.