Drax to take £10m hit as it suffers outage

As a result of the outage, biomass deliveries are currently restricted, the power generator said.

To optimise available supplies, generation on the two Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) units has been reduced, Drax said.

These two units will be taken offline for a short period. The outage on the rail unloading facilities is currently expected to be completed during January 2018, at which point the units should return to service.

Drax said it expects a reduction in EBITDA of £10m in 2017 as a result of the outage.

Drax Group contributed £1.7bn to the British economy last year, helping to support thousands of jobs around the country, according to recent research.

The Selby-based power company generated £419m in the Yorkshire and Humber region alone, supporting 3,650 jobs.

Researchers at Oxford Economics showed that the power station, which employs around 900 people and has seen three of its six generating units converted in recent years to use compressed wood pellets, generated 16 per cent of the country’s renewable electricity in 2016 – enough for four million households, the equivalent of Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool.