UK cannot afford to ignore coal-fired power: Labour's O'Neill

London (Platts)--9Jun2005

The UK cannot afford to ignore coal-fired generation in its future energy mix,
former Labour MP Martin O'Neill told the Utility Strategy Group conference in
London Wednesday. O'Neill was chairman of the House of Commons trade and
industry select committee until the general election in May. He will shortly
take up a seat in the House of Lords. O'Neill said that coal could not
continue to be used on the present large scale, because of the emissions it
produced. But the UK could not afford to ignore the capability of coal-fired
power stations to be very quickly fired up and used as an effective support
fuel during unexpected periods of peak demand. O'Neill said that if the UK was
to require back-up coal plants kept on standby for security of supply reasons,
the market would have to provide an incentive. There were various options,
such as offering a flat-rate payment each year for keeping coal plant on
standby or paying a premium rate for electricity produced from coal.

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