Future of Local Power Supplies

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 5th Jul 2001

The future of one of Yorkshire's largest power station looks as though it has been secured for at least a further fifteen years after Euro-MPs agreed to relax demands for pollution-cutting measures which could have led to its imminent closure.

But the region's Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis described the decision as a difficult balancing act between keeping jobs and protecting the environment.

The cooling towers of coal-fired Ferrybridge power station have been a prominent feature on the Yorkshire landscape for decades.

Sited on the M62 between Pontefract and Castleford, and now owned by Edison First Power Ltd, the 2000 MW power station is capable of producing enough electricity to meet the peak requirements of more than two million people.

But sulphur dioxide emissions from the power plant make it a large source of air pollution in the region. It emits 60,000 tonnes of sulphur each year, and is in the top 30 most polluting power stations in the European Union.

The European Parliament has been pressing for proposed new EU laws to improve air quality by reducing the emissions permitted from new power plants to be applied also to existing ones.

Euro-MPs wanted older coal-fired power plants that had not been fitted with expensive desulphurisation equipment to all be closed within a decade.

The British Government warned that the overall effect of the measure would be to bring about the closure of the remaining British coal industry. Over a million tonnes of the coal burnt at Ferrybridge is transported by barge along canal systems directly into the station from local suppliers. 80% of coal produced by UK Coal is burnt in British power stations

Now a deal has been negotiated between MEPs and Ministers which will allow large coal-fired power stations to operate up to 2,000 hours a year until 2016 with relatively minor cuts in emission levels, and 1,500 hours a year thereafter so long as they meet tougher emission standards.

Diana Wallis MEP, explained that the deal had been made possible because Britain had committed itself to meeting higher air quality standards than it had previously been prepared to accept.

"Pollution pays no respect to national boundaries, and the standards need to be laid down at a European level. But now that these targets have been agreed I think it is up to each country to decide for itself how it will meet them," she said.

"In Britain's case that means requiring electricity generators to do even more than has already been achieved in cutting pollution, but not placing impossible burdens upon them.

"It's a difficult trade-off between losing jobs now and reducing our future energy options, or speeding up the pace of environmental improvement."

The Liberal Democrat MEP said that despite the deal the main factor determining the future of Ferrybridge would be whether energy prices could justify further investment in the plant.