ScottishPower Calls Time on Cockenzie Coal-fired Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- One of the U.K.'s oldest operating coal-fired plants will be shut down at the end of March next year in order to comply with European Union (E.U.) emissions legislation.

ScottishPower (Glasgow, Scotland) has announced that the 1,200-megawatt Cockenzie power plant in East Lothian, Scotland, will shut on March 31, 2013, after 44 years of operation. By next March the plant will have used up its remaining operational hours permitted under European Law. Cockenzie Power Station was opted out of the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) in January 2008, which meant that it had to close by December 2015 or after it had operated for 20,000 hours. The European directive is designed to limit the lifespan of high polluting plants.

Cockenzie will run at a reduced capacity of 550 MW from next month in order to extend its operating time into next year. It is the second U.K. coal-fired plant to be scheduled for closure in recent weeks. Earlier this month, E.ON UK, a subsidiary of German energy major E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany), announced that its 1,940 MW Kingsnorth coal-fired power plant in Kent, England, is to shut almost two years earlier than expected to comply with European Union (E.U.) emissions rules. For additional information, see March 13, 2012, article - E.ON Shutting U.K. Kingsnorth Coal-fired Plant.

"For over 40 years, the skills and experience of the team at Cockenzie has ensured that the Station operated in a flexible and reliable manner," commented Neil Clitheroe, CEO of ScottishPower Generation Holdings Ltd. "Their hard work and dedication throughout these years has enabled the station to operate for more than 20 years beyond its design life. We will be working very closely with all employees at Cockenzie in the coming months and we are hopeful that alternative employment can be offered to all staff who wish to stay within the company."

Last October, ScottishPower secured the green light to build a 1,000 MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant on the site of its existing coal-fired plant at Cockenzie in East Lothian, Scotland. For additional information, see October 7, 2011, article - ScottishPower to Build Cockenzie Gas-Fired Plant.

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