LONDON (Reuters) -One unit at Uniper's 2 gigawatt Ratfcliffe coal plant in Britain will close next year, two years ahead of the full shut down of the facility, the company said on Wednesday.
The Ratcliffe coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire, England, is due to close at the end of Sept. 2024. Uniper said it will close one 500-megawatt unit at the plant earlier than that, at the end of Sept. 2022.
"We are taking this opportunity to reduce coal generation on the UK system by closing one of the four 500 megawatt units two years ahead of the government’s announced coal phase-out date," the company said in a statement.
"The remaining three units at Ratcliffe will continue to provide reliable power to support the UK system until the end of September 2024, in line with our existing capacity market agreements with the government," it added.
Commissioned in 1968, the Ratcliffe plant is one of two remaining coal plants in England in operation. The UK government said in June this year it would end coal power by October 2024.
Uniper said it wants the Ratcliffe site to become a zero-carbon technology and energy hub for the East Midlands. It submitted a planning application for the development of an energy recovery facility at the site last year.