UK ministers are preparing to waive emissions checks on fossil fuel plants as part of emergency measures to keep the lights on next winter.
Whitehall officials are proposing that coal and gas stations that could provide back-up supply for the UK grid next year will not need emissions reports to be signed off by independent experts.
The plan to jettison requirements for coal emissions to be independently verified would be a major blow to the government’s efforts to decommission coal by 2024.
Britain was due to phase out the use of coal power stations within the next two years, but the latest would help allow coal plants to participate in electricity auctions in the winter of 2023 to 2024.
Under rules introduced in 2019 fossil fuel facilities that sought to participate in the National Grid ESO market for back-up supply had to declare emissions under emissions caps.
The government sought for these emissions declarations to be independently verified, but The Telegraph reported that it had experienced delays in sourcing accredited personnel to verify emissions.
Whitehall officials are worried that if these checks were made compulsory then some plants would be excluded from being able to provide back-up supply next winter (2023-24).
Officials are reportedly planning to delay making checks compulsory for another year to enable fossil fuel plants to take part in the auctions next year in what is the second delay to the scheme.
The government said delaying checks “would be a reasonable precaution to take” to secure supply amid sanctions on Russian oil and gas, and that the risk of falsifying emissions was “low”, according to consultation papers.
National Grid and government officials are also reportedly planning to relax electricity market rules further in a way that could enable out-of-service coal plants to participate in auctions, to avoid 6mln households facing blackouts this winter.
In May, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he had asked National Grid to consider keeping three coal power stations operated by EDF, Drax Group (LSE:DRX) and Uniper running this winter.
These included coal power stations at West Burton, Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire and Drax’s Selby power station in North Yorkshire.