NGESO has now instructed two coal-fired generating units to ‘warm’ in case they are required to boost supplies on Tuesday.
The system operator said the first unit warmed yesterday was at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-sea plant and the second warmed early this morning was at EDF’s West Burton A plant.
The system operator has access to five “winter contingency” coal units which require between 12 and 24 hours notice to warm up ready to go into operation if needed and tomorrow is likely to see low wind speeds and thus less contribution from the UK’s wind farms.
UPDATE: the units were ‘stood down’ at 16.30 on Monday and NGESO also decided not to call a Demand Flexibility Service event for Tuesday, saying it was not required.