London (Platts)--28Feb2013/804 am EST/1304 GMT
The UK generation mix was dominated by coal-fired power production for the first time in 2012, with coal burn reaching its highest level since 1996 and gas output at its lowest since the same year, according to provisional figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change Thursday. Cheaper coal, more expensive gas and plummeting carbon prices have resulted in a fundamental shift in the UK merit order, with coal accounting for 42.8% of electricity supplied in 2012, surging from around 30% in 2011, and gas's share falling to 27.6%, down from around 40% a year earlier. DECC said that the switch from gas to coal had resulted in an increased demand for primary energy "as gas generation is thermally more efficient than coal generation." The department pegged the UK's 2012 temperature-adjusted primary energy consumption just shy of 210 million mt of oil equivalent, a touch lower on the year but around 1% higher than it would have been if gas had remained the dominant generation fuel. Article continues below...Platts 4th Annual European Power Generation ConferenceEuropean power: timing the tipping point: April 22-23, Dusseldorf, GermanyPlatts 4th annual European Power Generation conference will focus exclusively on power generation, with sessions addressing the latest trends and developments in conventional generation, renewables, large scale low carbon generation and biomass, market design and issues around infrastructure investment.
The UK generation mix was dominated by coal-fired power production for the first time in 2012, with coal burn reaching its highest level since 1996 and gas output at its lowest since the same year, according to provisional figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change Thursday. Cheaper coal, more expensive gas and plummeting carbon prices have resulted in a fundamental shift in the UK merit order, with coal accounting for 42.8% of electricity supplied in 2012, surging from around 30% in 2011, and gas's share falling to 27.6%, down from around 40% a year earlier. DECC said that the switch from gas to coal had resulted in an increased demand for primary energy "as gas generation is thermally more efficient than coal generation." The department pegged the UK's 2012 temperature-adjusted primary energy consumption just shy of 210 million mt of oil equivalent, a touch lower on the year but around 1% higher than it would have been if gas had remained the dominant generation fuel.
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Platts 4th annual European Power Generation conference will focus exclusively on power generation, with sessions addressing the latest trends and developments in conventional generation, renewables, large scale low carbon generation and biomass, market design and issues around infrastructure investment.
In other energy sources, nuclear generation remained in third position, growing 2.1% year-on-year to account for 20.8% of the total mix and more than 70% of low carbon energy. Wind generation was up 33% in 2012, DECC said, and its share of the total grew to 5.5% from 4% in 2011. Bioenergy gained 46% year-on-year to reach a 1.9% share, while hydro generation fell 9% with its share of the energy mix decreasing marginally to 1.4%, due to lower rainfall in the areas where UK hydro resources are located. The total share of low-carbon energy continued to grow in 2012, accounting for 29.6% of total generation, up from 26.7% in 2011. DECC said Thursday's figures are provisional as complete annual estimates are only available for major power producers, which excludes auto-producers and some renewable sources. More detailed estimates for 2012 will be released on March 28. --Anna Crowley, anna_crowley@platts.com--Edited by James Leech, james_leech@platts.com
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