The firm though said that did not amount to a closure announcement, and that it could alter its position depending on market conditions.
The plant, which is mostly fuelled by coal, is subject to limited running hours under the EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive. Npower said it could not confirm how many hours the plant had left to run citing commercial confidentiality.
Didcot A power station manager Jim Haggan said the move “simply reflects current market conditions and a requirement to reduce costs, therefore future changes could change our future TEC requirements”. He added: “We are keeping all future options for the site open”.
An Npower spokeswoman told Utility Week that its 2GW combined cycle gas turbine plant at Pembroke is “bang on schedule” and due to come on stream in the third quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, the Tilbury biomass plant damaged by a fire in February remains offline. Npower said shortly after the incident that it hoped one of the 250MW units would be back online in April, but the company confirmed that unit 8 was now scheduled to return early in June, with units 9 and 10 currently scheduled to return to service on 30 July.