The deal means the power station will stay open for at least 12 months from its planned closure date of March 2016. 235 jobs, representing 85 per cent of the power station’s workforce, will be safe until March 2017, as the power station has been contracted to provide 775 MW of back-up power for 2016-17.
Eggborough had been due to close after failing to win government subsidy for its planned conversion to biomass. Its owner EPH recently acquired Lynemouth power station, which is also set to convert to biomass.
Under the Supplemental Balancing Reserve, National Grid pays power stations that would otherwise close or be mothballed to stay open, providing extra capacity if needed. It is a temporary measure to mitigate the current capacity crunch, ahead of the capacity market coming online in 2018/19.