Britain's Eggborough coal-fired power plant to close -operator
LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) -
* Britain’s Eggborough coal-fired power plant will close after it failed to secure a capacity agreement in this week’s auction, the operator said
* “The power plant will continue to meet its obligations under the current capacity market contract, which runs through to the end of September 2018, but without a contract for future years it will cease to be economically viable to continue operations,” Eggborough Power Limited said in a statement.
* The power station was built in 1970 with an expected 25-year life span. It comprises four units and supplies 5 percent of the power in Britain, equivalent to powering about two million homes.
* A planning application is being progressed to develop a new 2,500 megawatt gas-fired power station (CCGT) at the site but it is expected that this would not be operational until the early 2020s. (Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by David Goodman)