A new life for the UK’s aging energy assets
Repurposing for today’s power needs
Electrification of the UK economy is well under way, driven partly by growing demand for electric vehicles and data centers. Now the country’s electrical system needs to catch up.
“The bones of the electricity system were built and developed last century, designed for a different distribution of power than we're seeing today,” observes Richard Gwilliam. “But if a government was to rewrite how the country should be wired, it would be hugely expensive.”
An alternative approach is to repurpose existing infrastructure, such as the UK’s biggest power station, Drax in North Yorkshire, where Gwilliam is a Director.
Opened in 1974 as a coal-fired power station, Drax transitioned to biomass in 2012. Its grid connections, industrial-scale transformers, and vast site can help the UK support new electricity demand.
Drax is contracted to supply the grid, but only for around a third of the site’s generation capacity, says Gwilliam.
“We've got a unique site by scale and opportunity, but this is characteristic of a lot of other legacy plants in the network,” he says. “I think there's real value to be gained from thinking differently about how we use existing assets, rather than starting from scratch.”
“There's real value to be gained from thinking differently about how we use existing assets, rather than starting from scratch.”
Richard Gwilliam, Future of Drax Power Station Director, Drax Group
U.K. races to attract AI
One option being pursued by Drax management is the reuse of capacity for an onsite data center. Drax plans to apply for an initial scheme of up to 100MW, paving the way for a facility with over 1GW capacity before the end of the decade.
In Europe, the UK is second only to Germany in existing data center count. But the biggest data center growth is now in inference AI, with countries seeking capacity to ensure future data residency and sovereignty.
Gwilliam, who previously worked for the UK National Grid, was involved in initial work to design regional AI growth zones. Six such zones have recently been announced as part of the UK’s AI strategy.
“The number of AI data centers being constructed in the UK at the moment is not huge, partly driven by high energy prices and uncertainty on how the system will be managed during the energy transition,” Gwilliam says. “But the government are certainly grappling with the issue.”
Connection bottlenecks underline the need to make use of existing infrastructure: “The market for data centers is evolving at such a significant rate. If you are wholly dependent on building presence in that by joining a grid queue, the opportunities will just go elsewhere.”
Action to counter renewable volatility
The UK’s success in embracing renewables has increased vulnerability to weather events. The UK is also having to procure essential system elements – short-circuit, frequency response, voltage control, and inertia – which were natural by-products of traditional generation.
“The change has brought about a different market, and the industry has had to figure out how to respond,” he says. “We’re seeing companies build flywheels, for example, and sit them on the network just as a spinning plant to keep things moving.”
The UK’s power prices remain high, partly as a result of incentives for clean energy technologies. Gwilliam predicts that wholesale costs will decline over time, but the need to respond to increased volatility will continue to incur cost.
“We're increasingly seeing negative pricing, very low pricing events,” he notes. “That corresponds with many renewable assets being brought onto the system”. Furthermore, in periods of low renewable output, “gas assets are required to come onto the system at short notice, which are able to command quite a high price, so we see larger spikes in the cost of power overall.”
