Drax reports biomass outage following rail-related fire

Drax Group plc has announced an unplanned outage on the rail unloading facilities at Drax Power Station is restricting biomass deliveries to plant. Drax also said generation on two biomass-fired units has been reduced.

An incident report released by North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue explains that several area fire crews responded to a fire at Drax on the morning of Dec. 15. The report cites radiated heat as the cause of the fire and notes crews extinguished the fire using main jets.

In its statement, Drax said the unplanned outage of its rail unloading facilities has caused biomass deliveries to be restricted. In order to optimize available supplies, the company has reduced generation on the two Renewable Obligation Certificate units. Drax said these two units will be taken offline for a short period. The Contract for Difference unit and coal operations remain unaffected.

According to Drax, the outage on the rail unloading facilities is expected to be completed in January, at which point the ROC units should return to service.

Drax also said that the outage and reduced generation of the ROC units are expected to result in a £10 million ($13.39 million) reduction in EBITDA for 2017.