Over 20 fire service vehicles were required to extinguish the blaze which broke out on Sunday night, according to reports from the BBC, with no reason for the incident yet available.
The fire is likely to remove the unit from service over much of the coming winter months, a further blow to the UK’s supply margins which were slashed over the summer following the unexpected closure of 3 GW of capacity.
The fire-damaged Ferrybridge coal-fired power plant and four of EDF energy’s nuclear reactors, taken offline due to safety concerns, are due to return later this year but delays would increase the risk of a supply shortfall.
National Grid is expected to publish its winter outlook report later this month detailing its plans to make up for the unexpected shortfall of capacity earlier this year.
In September the transmission system operator said that it will manage the increased risk of a supply shortfall this winter through a precautionary tender process for Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) at an undisclosed amount.
Under an SBR contract capacity providers would be required to ramp up generation between 0600hrs and 2000hrs between November and February to meet peak demand. These measures will stand alongside National Grid’s 319MW demand-side response which contracts companies including Tata Steel and Flexitricity to reduce demand on the national power grid between peak demand hours.
Energy secretary Ed Davey said on Monday morning that the fire does not increase risk to the UK’s electricity supplies.
“I’ve been reassured by National Grid that there is no risk to electricity supplies. I will be keeping in touch with the relevant authorities throughout,” Davey said.
“My priority is to understand the cause of the fire and get the affected unit back generating electricity as soon as it’s safe to do so,” he added.
In Ofgem’s June outlook report the regulator estimated this winter’s peak demand at average weather conditions to be between 54- 55 GW, with a ‘safety net’ of a 5-10 per cent supply margin on top of this.
A total of 4.3GW has been lost from the UK’s generating fleet since this report.