Coal supplies 50% of UK peak winter power demand: energy minister

London (Platts)--15Feb2006

Coal supplied more than half of the UK's peak power demand this winter
and will be key to the country's Energy Review, UK Energy Minister
Malcolm Wicks said Wednesday. 
     "This winter has demonstrated the value of coal as part of our diverse
generating mix. Against expectations, and as the price of gas spiraled, coal
has been meeting 50% of average weekday demand, stepping in to keep
electricity flowing to our homes, factories and offices," Wicks said at a coal
conference in London.
     "Normally, coal would average only 40% of supply at this time of year.
This flexibility, built on the diversity of our energy sources, is an
important strength of our energy market."
     But the UK energy minister said cleaner generation units were needed if
coal was to survive the shift to sustainable forms of energy.
     "I am encouraged that more two-thirds of the UK's coal-fired power
stations have signed up to meet tough new limits on sulphur and nitrogen
emissions. Nevertheless, current projections in the Energy Review show that by
2020 coal may only account for 16% of our electricity."
     Wicks said the biggest barrier to coal's future was carbon dioxide and
its contribution to climate change. "It is this which is driving the
development of carbon abatement technologies the world over," he said.
     Carbon capture and storage has the potential to eliminate up to 95% of
CO2 emissions, cleaning up the environmental impact of traditional fossil
fuels such as coal.
     "For the UK this need not necessarily be a future based solely on
imports.  We still have substantial coal reserves and there are arguments for
maintaining production from them, both opencast and deep mine, provided that
they can be made economically viable," Wicks said.

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