This column by Will Gardiner, Drax CEO, first appeared in The Yorkshire Post (17th November 2025)
The power station is important to Yorkshire’s economy, supporting local businesses through our operations and supply chains and giving multiple generations the opportunity to build their skills and develop their careers in the county.
The new agreement we have made with the UK Government provides certainty that Drax can continue to support UK energy security as well as helping drive economic growth into the 2030s. It is also underpinned by strengthened sustainability criteria, which has been updated in line with the latest science and best practice.
Under the agreement, when the UK does not have enough electricity Drax can step in to increase generation, avoiding the need to burn more gas or import power from Europe, and when there is too much electricity Drax can turn down and help to balance the system.
Baringa’s analysis of the new deal says it will result in a net saving for consumers of up to £3.1bn over its term. This is because the deal avoids the need to produce additional capacity and reduces the country’s reliance on fossil fuels and interconnectors.
In line with the policies of successive Governments, we invested hundreds of millions in converting Drax Power Station to sustainable biomass generation as well as maintaining it so that it is available when the country needs it – particularly when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.
This investment has meant, unlike every single other former coal fired power station in Yorkshire, Drax Power Station remains operational and continues to play its vital role.
Critically the new deal also provides us with a foundation to progress options for the power station so it can remain operational well into the future.
One long-standing opportunity is to install the carbon removals and renewable power technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), at the power station which we continue to consider. But this project requires the right support from UK Government, including the development of a business model and importantly a regional carbon transport and storage network to connect to.
We are also exploring the options of hosting a data centre at Drax Power Station, which could be complementary to our BECCS plans and potentially attract billions in investment into the region.
With a grid connection, 24/7 power availability, significant amounts of development land, cooling infrastructure and a high-skilled and dedicated workforce the site has all the key requirements a large hyperscale data centre would need to be developed.
As part of this, we are proud to be participating in York & North Yorkshire’s AI Growth Zone bid, and we continue to have conversations with developers on how a data centre could be deployed at the power station.
With projections that data centres could account for up to 14 per cent of the UKs power demand by 2035, ensuring there is sufficient generation capacity for them is a critical security of supply question.
In the future, once we have fulfilled our obligations to the UK Government, we could provide power to a data centre generated at Drax and paid for by data centre users.
This would help the site move away from a bill payer supported model while continuing to help meet national energy demand.
Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group.
