UK Power Grid Revives Coal Plants Due To Energy Crisis

Great Britain’s National Grid has announced it is reviving two reserve coal-fired power plants since the country is facing blackouts resulting from a lack of wind. This occurring amid the U.K. and Europe’s overall energy crisis.

Britain’s electricity grid operator has asked two of its coal-fired power stations to start warming up as freezing weather conditions heap pressure on the UK’s power network.

National Grid said it had asked the winter “contingency” plants to prepare for operation to “give the public confidence in Monday’s energy supply”.

It said the move means the coal-fired stations can be used as “tools for additional contingency” as needed to allow the network to run as usual and stressed that people “should continue to use energy as normal”.

The UK faces its biggest test yet with the current cold snap – which has seen the country suffer freezing temperatures and snow in many areas – ramping up demand for power at a time when supplies are tight.

It’s not like the British government wasn’t warned about this. Former Conservative MP John Redwood who served in parliament during the governments of Sir John Major and the late Margaret Thatcher noted: “BBC Radio 4 and the Grid are to talk about using more old coal power stations as it is cold with little wind. Why were they not interested in this before when some of us warned them this could happen?

In recent years, the country’s fossil fuel-powered energy capacity has diminished significantly. But, despite warnings given, it is no surprise that even Joe Biden’s Climate envoy John Kerry condemns any semblance of British energy independence, especially if it involves the use of fossil fuels.

However, despite promises to go carbon-neutral, over the last five years Communist China has commissioned over 200 coal-fired power plants and are still the world’s worst polluter. Not a peep of criticism from Kerry or any environmentalists.

PHOTO CREDIT: West Burton coal-fired power station – By Richard Croft, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7941254