Interview: Drax Power CEO on creating a ‘world leader’ in using biomass technology

Back in 2015, the government set out proposals to end coal-fired generation by 2025 as part of its plan to stimulate a clean energy generation. Leading the charge for reducing carbon emissions is North Yorkshire’s Drax power station, which is the largest in the UK and almost twice the size of the next biggest power station.

Drax is now a predominantly renewable power generator, having converted three of its generating units to only use sustainable biomass, which has resulted in carbon savings of more than 80% compared to coal and the creation of a completely new supply industry.

The company has built two pellet plants in the southern US – Mississippi and Louisiana. These are now fully operational and deliver biomass pellets to Drax via the port at Baton Rouge. Shipments come to the Port of Tyne on the north east coast, ports at Hull and Immingham on the Humber estuary and since October 2015 from Port of Liverpool.

As a result, Drax has saved over 20 million tonnes of carbon since it began using sustainable biomass, and currently powers 3 million UK homes with renewable electricity.

I recently spoke with Drax Power CEO Andy Koss about creating a ‘world leader’ in the use of biomass technology, and the future of renewable power at Drax power station.

Firstly, Andy explained when and how the decision was made to convert Drax into a predominantly renewable power generator.

He said: “It dates back to around 2010 to 2011 when we first started looking at renewable power.

“I think we began to realise that coal was a fuel of the past and the Conservative government coming in were looking at a carbon price floor.”

“We had been doing quite a lot of work at that point, such as co-firing biomass and coal into the same boilers, as well as upgrading our turbines to reduce our carbon emissions. We then decided, that if coal is a thing of the past and if we want to get our emissions down further, we had to do something much bigger and bolder.

“The government eventually introduced a carbon price floor, but they also changed the rules around renewable aid and began to support the conversion of individual units. From that point the plan was born and the government support was confirmed in 2012. We started the conversion work immediately after that.”

Drax has now invested around £650m-£700m in transforming coal burning units, building new biomass facilities at the power station and creating new supply chains in the UK and United States.

Andy explained: “We put about half of the investment in Drax, and spent the other half on building pellet plants in the US. We’ve also supported the investment of almost £300m in UK port facilities as well.

“We are really pleased with the result, especially since there were a number of people who said ‘you couldn’t do it’ and that ‘you couldn’t put biomass into a unit that was designed to run on coal’.

“From our perspective our engineering team have done a fantastic job because, not only did we prove those doubters wrong, but the efficiency and output of the units is as good as, if not better, than they were on coal.

“We have surpassed our own expectations.”

When I asked Andy if there was any apprehension in converting to use sustainable biomass, he said that “there were two big concerns.”

“One is around managing biomass itself. Biomass is a material that has to be handled very differently from coal, so we had to change the mindset of our employees as you can’t leave biomass outdoors and it has to be stored in domes. So biomass was a very different fuel to deal with.

“The other concern was that biomass wasn’t a very mature market. Therefore, we were really blazing a trail in terms of the contracts that we did, setting up the port facilities, building a new port infrastructure and designing our own rail wagons. The challenge in this was really the whole supply chain, from securing the material to bringing it into ports and then transporting it to the power station.”

As for where the biomass is sourced from, Andy explained that “80% of the biomass we use comes from North America” because “there is a huge surplus of the residues left over in the forests that we use for biomass.”

“In addition, there is a long-term sustainable source for biomass in the US. The forests have increased in size compared to 50 years ago. The scale of the forests are just incredible so we were very confident that there would be plenty of material around.”

With the government’s aim of closing all coal-fired plants by 2025, I asked Andy if Drax is expected to reach this deadline and be upgraded to run solely on biomass?

He commented: “We’ve already said we stand ready to convert more units and this can be done within two to three years, if we get the go-ahead. So we are very confident that we can do it way ahead of 2025.”

Finally, I asked Andy if the impact of the government’s deadline and the conversion of Drax’s units will have any impact on jobs at the plant, which currently employs 950 people.

He said: “These conversions will definitely preserve jobs. Lots of people here have seen employees at Kellingley coal mine, Eggborough power station and Ferrybridge power station lose their jobs.

“This is about us extending the life of the plant into the future.”