Tag: flexible generation

Where is Britain’s electricity system heading? A conversation with Will Gardiner and Iain Staffell

16 September 2026

Opinion

Britain’s energy system is being pulled in many directions at once, with record levels of renewable generation alongside ongoing challenges around affordability, security and resilience.

As part of the Q2 2026 Electric Insights analysis, our CEO Will Gardiner spoke with Electric Insights author and Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London, Iain Staffell, about what Britain’s latest electricity trends reveal about the direction of the power system and what it will take to deliver reliable, affordable net zero electricity.

Watch the full video conversation here:

Or read the transcript here:

Iain: Hello, I’m Iain Staffell, Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London and author of Electric Insights. Today, I’m joined on the call by Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax, as part of our Electric Insights Quarterly analysis. We’ll look at what Britain’s latest electricity trends tell us about where the system is heading and what it will take to make net zero power more affordable and reliable.

Will, thank you for joining me. It feels like Britain’s energy system is being pulled in every direction at once. Bills remain stubbornly high, security is back at the top of the agenda, and we’ve struggled through record temperatures. But we also have record levels of renewable generation. When you put all of these trends together, what stands out the most?

Will: Hi, Iain, and thanks very much for having me today. And there’s definitely a feeling that we’ve made, we here in Britain have made real progress in decarbonising the power system. Now we have a real opportunity to turn some of the challenges into solutions in a way that will strengthen energy security, support growth and deliver wider benefits.

So for me, for example, the idea that actually people talk about Clean Power 2030. Are we going to get there by 2030? And for me, that’s not really the question. I mean, the question is we are going to get there and it’s not so important as to when it’s a question of will. And so I think for me, we need to continue this plan of rolling out homegrown renewables because they are doing much of the heavy lifting. We are reducing reliance on imported fuels. And as we know, in a world where imported fuels, often the price is impacted by geopolitics in ways that is very unhelpful for improving energy security while also reducing emissions and lowering bills. The key challenge we have, of course, is that we need to be fast and we need to be more joined up.

You know, we at Drax have real plans, for example, to add more generation. So we’re adding solar, we’re adding wind. We want to add batteries. And it’s just very difficult still to get stuff connected. So we need to be able to actually join things up and add more stuff that’s actually going to make this transition happen.

But what we’re doing at Drax, is we’re all about delivering resilient, reliable, renewable power and investing in the flexible, low carbon technologies that we need to effectively meet demand.

So we’re looking beyond single technologies. It’s a whole system challenge. How do we get a system which allows for dispatchable renewable, Sorry, for intermittent renewable generation, as in wind and solar, to be more supported by dispatchable generation, whether that’s biomass, whether that’s batteries, whether that’s long duration storage. So I think that’s the whole system challenge I think we need to sort of focus on solving.

But that’s my perspective Iain. And I’d be much more interested in what does the data say to you about where we’re heading and are we heading in the right direction?

Iain: Yeah, I’d say broadly, yes. When wind and solar now produced 40% of our electricity in Britain, cutting the need for imported gas. But the data also show the practical challenges that this is causing. I mean, we’ve got renewables being curtailed. We’ve got more hours with negative power prices and there’s growing strain on the balancing system. So the direction’s encouraging. But we’re paying the price for falling behind on flexibility.

And I think the cost of energy is what concerns most people. And critics point to rising offshore wind prices, expensive grid reinforcement and curtailment costs. And they ask whether the economics of the energy transition still stack up. And how do you respond to that?

Will: I fundamentally do believe that the economics of the transition stack up, right? I mean, things like wind, solar batteries, the technologies that are driving the advancements in those technologies are continuing to drive costs down. Well, at the same time, fossil fuels continue to be volatile. They continue to be impacted by geopolitics, as I already mentioned. So renewables reduces our exposure to that volatility. But obviously there’s also a cost. And that’s about again how do we find that balance.

We have to invest in the grid. We have to invest in storage. We have to invest in flexibility so we can actually to balance the supply and demand. And as I mentioned before, we need to invest in dispatchable low carbon generation that makes renewable power possible.

So one of the things that I think we in the again, in Britain should be more proud of and sort of speak more sort of proudly and happily about, is that we have had policy certainty. We’re very close to policy certainty for a long time about the generation of trying to move to a decarbonised energy system, and that’s really important. And that’s been, I think, more significant than in many countries. And as a result, we’ve made a lot of progress. And the next step is actually how do we now start to encourage more of that flexibility or that resilience that can support intermittent renewables.

Iain: So I mean, you talk about all of the sort of incredible achievements and the investment that we’ve had, but it’s going to take a staggering amount of coordinated work to meet the infrastructure needs over the next decade.

You know, the government’s Clean Power 2030 targets imply adding about 60 to 70GW of solar and wind capacity this decade. So that’s more than doubling what we currently have on the system. Do you think the main challenge is now the technology, or is it delivering it quickly enough and at the right price?

Will: So I actually think the technology is ready. And actually I’m not sure ready is the right phrase. The technology continues to evolve in a positive way. Batteries are going from 2 hours to 4 hours, ultimately to eight hours. The efficiency of solar panels continues to improve. So the technology is there, you know, and many developers like ourselves have significant pipelines, solar, battery storage, etc. that they want to put in place. So I think the technology is there, the investor base is there, and it’s now really all about delivery. And that delivery is the hard part and the barriers are familiar. So planning, getting grid connections, the supply chains, investor confidence. I mean investor confidence is still there. But we need to make sure we don’t lose that. So overcoming these things is not impossible. Absolutely I think we can do it. And I think we need, for example, finding ways to make it easier to get connections is a big topic for us here at Drax. So working on ways that we can do that. So for example, for me, one of the things that’s very challenging is that as a generator trying to get a connection, we don’t actually get firm commitment from the system operators. When this will happen, we could make those more firm and more legally binding. That would be a great step forward. So we need to find ways again to make it easier for us and others to deliver.

Iain: So you’re talking about generation and everyone focuses on electricity supply. It’s always a supply side issue. But do you think demand is also becoming a hot topic?

Will: Absolutely. I mean, and it’s really I would say maybe I’ll make three different points here. So people have been talking about for a while, maybe the last ten years, that electrification is the way to accelerate decarbonisation. And you’re starting to see that happen. That’s electric vehicles, electrifying heat, parts of industry. So that’s a trend that we’ve been seeing and I think starting to have an impact over time.

The second thing which we’re all aware of is data centres. And clearly they’re attracting a lot of controversy. But it is happening and it needs to happen, and we need to do it in the right way. That again will drive demand.

But the third part of this, which I think is an interesting question, is that if we could make the cost of electricity to the end user less expensive, then effectively, that would accelerate the drive and demand, and then the more demand you get a positive virtuous cycle, because if you can have more demand, you can spread the fixed cost of a lot of this grid reinforcement, for example, over a broader sort of land based that would bring the unit cost down over time. So ideas like, for example, moving some of the renewable cost off the energy or the electricity bill, moving on to general taxation, we think would be a very interesting idea to sort of drive the demand. So we think demand will grow, but we think there’s ways that government policy could accelerate that.

Iain: So I mean, a renewable power system has these problems of reduced asset utilisation, but it still has to always be there when people and businesses need electricity. And we all know that the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. And I think batteries, they’re an excellent way for covering the short peaks. But Britain is a windy country, so unlike a lot of the other countries in the world, we need to keep power flowing for days or weeks at a time when it’s particularly cold and the weather is still. So to cope with our weather, we need to get serious about long duration energy storage and clean, dispatchable generation so that supply remains secure in all situations.

Will: Absolutely true. And long duration storage is absolutely part of our plans and we think the UK needs more of it. I think again, technology is helping move in that direction. For example, batteries get to be longer term. But as you say in the UK we left to complain about the weather, don’t we? But do you see that becoming more of a problem in the years ahead?

Iain: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, just look at the summer that we’ve been through. We’re seeing Britain’s climate changing before our eyes. You know, we’ve got heat waves and we’ve got droughts at a scale that we haven’t seen before. And I think climate resilience needs to become central to planning hotter summers, stronger winter storms and changing rainfall. They’re all affecting demand generation and the electricity infrastructure. I don’t think we can hold the design for the weather. I don’t think we can design for the weather that we remember from childhood. I mean, the power system needs to cope with wider swings and more extreme conditions that the future will throw at us.

But that said, I don’t want to finish on a negative. We’ve talked a lot about the challenges and the costs. So let me ask, what do you think are the biggest opportunities for Britain as we move forward with the Clean Power Plan?

Will: So, as we as we started this conversation, I think Britain has made more progress than many countries in decarbonising, which means we have a bigger share of power driven by intermittent renewables, means that we actually now are starting to adjust problems, like how do you build a grid to deal with that? And for companies like ours. How do you use technology to optimise when you dispatch it and how you deliver the power when it’s needed most, etc., from batteries or from peaking plants, those types of things and these types of challenges will become global challenges. Because, you know, my very strong view is that the world will move to a renewable system over time. And so the UK is developing skills that actually which could become exportable over time. We become very good at managing a dispatchable system which requires both intermittent renewables but also flexible generation, batteries, etc., to support it as we become the world’s leaders in that, that’s absolutely something that we should exploit. And so I think, again, building that system is something that should give the UK over time significant industrial advantage. And that’s what we’re working on here.

Iain: Well thank you very much Will. That’s great.

And if you want to find out more, head to Electric Insights for all the latest.

Britain’s solar boom needs energy storage to tackle evening price spikes, new report finds

News

Britain’s rapid growth in solar power is helping cut emissions from the electricity system, but a lack of storage is leaving the grid increasingly exposed to higher prices and periods of tight supply, according to the latest Drax Electric Insights quarterly report authored by independent academics from Imperial College London.

The report found that Britain’s power system can now operate with very high levels of low-carbon generation during periods of strong sunshine. Britain added 2 GW of solar capacity over the past year, and during April, solar generation reached a record 15.4 GW. This helped zero-carbon sources account for a record 98.8% of electricity supply for one half-hour period.

The installed capacity (top line) and peak power output (bottom line) of Britain’s solar panels. 

Strong solar generation reduces Britain’s reliance on gas during the day and helps meet demand for air conditioning during heat waves. The challenge comes later, as solar output falls sharply in the evening, just as electricity demand typically increases, leaving Britain reliant on gas-fired generation to fill the gap. In June, Britain’s wholesale electricity prices after 7pm rose to over double their level at 2pm.

June’s heatwaves exposed the pressures on the system. Wholesale electricity prices rose above £500/MWh, their highest ever recorded in the month of June, while NESO issued its first-ever summertime Electricity Margin Notice.

Heatwaves can put further pressure on the electricity system, as we have seen over the summer. Air conditioning and greater cooling load increases demand just as high temperatures reduce the efficiency of power lines and thermal plants. Calm, low-wind evenings can also add to the pressure, leaving grid operators with fewer sources of generation available to meet the required demand.

Dr Iain Staffell, lead author of the report and Associate Professor at Imperial College London, said:

“Britain’s solar success should not end when the sun goes down. Batteries, pumped hydro and other storage tech can keep that daytime electricity flowing into the evening, which will reduce our reliance on gas and exposure to foreign market price spikes.

“Every new solar panel strengthens the case for storage. We need to build the two together. Otherwise, we risk breaking clean-power records at lunchtime and paying for expensive gas-fired power by dinnertime.”

The Government’s Solar Roadmap aims to put solar panels on an extra 3 million homes, adding a further 10 GW by 2030. The report warns that this will need to be accompanied by investment in electricity storage, flexible infrastructure and other forms of reliable generation if the additional power is to be used effectively.

Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax said:

“There is a feeling that Britain has made real progress in decarbonising its power system and now has a real opportunity to turn some of its energy challenges into solutions that can strengthen energy security, support growth and deliver wider benefits. We need to continue the plan of rolling out homegrown renewables, because they are doing much of the heavy lifting, we are reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, improving energy security, reducing emissions and lowering bills.

“The key challenge we have is we need to be faster and more joined up. At Drax we’re all about delivering resilient, reliable, renewable power today while investing in the flexible, low-carbon technologies that we need to effectively meet demand. This means looking beyond single technologies, it is a whole-system challenge, where renewable generation, dispatchable low-carbon power, storage and flexibility all need to work together.”

Read the full Electric Insights report here.

ENDS

Media contacts:

Kieran Wilson
E: [email protected]
T: 07729092807

About Drax

Drax’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Our strategic aims are to be a UK leader in flexible, renewable generation and a global leader in sustainable biomass pellet production.

Our operations

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low-carbon and renewable UK power assets – biomass, hydro, pumped storage and OCGT generation – which provide dispatchable power and system support services to the electricity grid.

We are the UK’s largest source of renewable power by output, and Drax Power Station is the UK’s largest single source of renewable electricity by output.

Through our pellet production facilities in North America, Drax is a leading integrated producer of sustainable biomass.

Drax supplies renewable electricity to UK industrial and commercial customers, offering a range of energy-related services including energy optimisation, as well as electric vehicle strategy and management.

Electricity VAT cut should pave way for wider reform

2 September 2026

Opinion

This article has been republished with permission from The Engineer.

Prime minister Andy Burnham has designated electricity affordability as one of his most pressing priorities in office, and for good reason.

High energy bills continue to put pressure on households already dealing with a rising cost of living. They’re also a drag on the wider economy, with high power costs leaching away around £30bn from energy-intensive industries between 2019 and 2024. But this doesn’t have to be the future; we have the power to change it.

The new government has responded by removing the five per cent VAT charge from domestic electricity bills for six months from 1 October onward. The move comes on the heels of Ofgem raising the household energy price cap by 13 per cent, and it should reduce the annualised cap by around £45.

This will give households some welcome breathing room, but it doesn’t address the deeper issue. Electricity still carries policy costs that gas does not, which keeps power comparatively expensive and sends a contradictory message to households and businesses that are being encouraged to electrify.

Pressure for wider reform is already growing. The Climate Change Committee has called for remaining policy costs to be removed from electricity bills, arguing that lower electricity prices would make it easier for households and businesses to electrify. The CBI and Energy UK have also proposed shifting key business levies into general taxation or another funding mechanism.

Britain needs to stop treating energy security and net zero as competing priorities when, with the right approach, it can achieve both. We need secure, affordable power while continuing to cut emissions and give investors the certainty needed to build the energy system the transition depends on. Wider reform, starting with how we fund green levies, can help bring those objectives together.

A step in the right direction

The current policy contradiction between electricity and gas has an impact on both household bills and businesses. High electricity costs can make Britain less attractive to data centres and other power-hungry industries tied to future economic opportunity that have a choice about where they invest.

The Climate Change Committee has argued that removing policy costs from electricity would allow the greater efficiency of electric heating to show up more clearly in household running costs.

Moving green levies into general taxation could spread the cost across a broader funding base rather than concentrating it on people and businesses that use electricity. This is not about reducing support for renewable energy. It’s about funding that support in a way that helps Britain move away from fossil fuels rather than making that transition harder. If we leave the system unchanged, we risk prolonging our exposure to volatile global gas markets and making the country less competitive.

A more competitive route to electrification

UK businesses pay around 45 per cent more for electricity than the G7 median, while four in ten companies have reduced investment because of energy costs.

Switching industrial heat from gas to grid electricity wasn’t commercially viable because of the price gap between the two fuels, according to an insight paper from CPI and Cornwall Insight.

The same research found that businesses cannot confidently base investments lasting 25 years or more on exemptions or policy support that may expire or change.

This illustrates that cost matters, but certainty matters too. As electricity demand continues to rise, it will drive increased need for flexible generation and storage to smooth fluctuations in wind and solar generation.

Lower bills need long-term investment

Moving green levies into general taxation can reduce pressure on electricity bills, but we also need to protect the system consumers rely on every day.

Energy infrastructure takes years to finance and build. If costs move to the Treasury, the government should pair that change with a durable, multi-year settlement. Agreed support needs to be protected under any proposed model; it cannot be reopened at every Budget or Spending Review without creating uncertainty across the sector.

Drax continues to invest in flexible generation and storage because Britain will need more capacity to keep power reliable as demand rises. The same long-term certainty matters for the broader industry.

To be clear, this is not about putting investors ahead of consumers. It is about making sure lower bills today do not come at the cost of a weaker or less reliable system tomorrow. For a country already facing high energy costs, getting this right means lowering bills now while making sure Britain still has the energy system it needs to compete in the future.

The VAT cut has changed the direction of the debate by recognising that electricity costs must fall, particularly as more households and businesses are encouraged to electrify. The next 28 October Budget offers the government an opportunity to move beyond temporary relief and set a course to tackle the wider cost of electricity.

If Britain is serious about reducing electricity costs, improving energy security and supporting long-term growth, moving green levies into general taxation is the clearest place to start – but it’s critical that we don’t stop there.

Why flexibility has become the UK’s shock absorber

7 August 2026

Opinion

This article has been republished with permission from Enlit World.

Will Gardiner, Drax CEO

Britain’s electricity system has never stood still. Over the past century it has continually reinvented itself to meet the needs of the country it serves.

The first major tasks of energy transformation in the twentieth century included mass electrification and cleaning up power generation – driven by the formation of the National Grid in 1926, the phase out of coal, and the growth of renewable energy.

Today, three major pressures have converged including the continued growth of renewable energy, which is bringing greater intermittency into the electricity system, electricity demand is rising sharply as more sectors electrify and the grid is coming under greater strain as new technologies and infrastructure connect to the network.

These are creating a new defining test: building system flexibility that can respond to more variable supply, volatile demand, and a strained grid. Flexibility is not a nice-to-have. It is the system’s shock absorber.

Essential flexibility

Flexibility operates on both the supply and demand sides of the energy equation, in the form of storage, generation (dispatchable and renewable), smart energy management, and shifting workloads.

Achieving this depends on a range of technologies – including transmission infrastructure, flexible generation assets, long-duration energy storage and battery energy storage systems (BESS), and asset optimisation platforms that help manage electricity demand and supply in real time – each playing an important role in supporting a more resilient grid.

No single technology provides the answer. Together, they help balance intermittent renewable generation, maintain system reliability, improve resilience during periods of high demand and reduce overall system costs.

As energy requirements continue to evolve, flexibility has become just as important as generation itself in ensuring the UK can deliver a secure, reliable and lower-carbon electricity system.

Beyond energy

Getting flexibility right delivers benefits that extend well beyond the energy sector.

Recent geopolitical events – from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to renewed tensions in the Middle East – have highlighted how quickly international energy markets can become volatile. Energy security and national security are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

Greater domestic generation and increased system flexibility can help reduce that exposure, improve overall system efficiency, support more stable long-term energy costs, encourage investment and job creation, and strengthen the UK’s industrial competitiveness.

Most importantly, it creates the platform for broader economic modernisation. A flexible and resilient electricity system will help enable the technologies, industries and businesses that will drive the UK’s next chapter of growth.

Powering innovation

Any discussion about the future of the UK’s electricity system quickly turns to artificial intelligence. The UK Government forecasts that the country will need at least 6GW of AI-capable data centre capacity by 2030, which is roughly three times more than today’s capacity.

Data centres’ energy needs constantly fluctuate – sometimes by hundreds of megawatts per minute. As workloads surge, pause and restart, the challenge cannot be met by more power alone, but also needs to account for how that power is managed dynamically.

AI will undoubtedly play an important role in shaping future electricity demand patterns, but it is only one part of a much broader picture.

Reliable electricity underpins almost every area of modern innovation. We often think about breakthroughs in healthcare, advanced manufacturing or artificial intelligence as separate stories. The reality is they are not.

They all have one thing in common: they depend on a resilient, flexible electricity system. From more effective cancer treatments and AI-enabled medical imaging to increasingly automated factories and the data centres powering the digital economy, electricity is what makes those innovations possible.

I’ve always considered energy the silent partner behind economic growth. It may not always be the focus of public attention, but it is fundamental to enabling innovation across every sector. However, flexibility is what will decide whether that partner can keep up.

Without a system that can respond to changing patterns of demand, many of those ambitions simply cannot happen at the same speed, or they come at greater cost.

This changing reality has shaped our own thinking. We’ve been evolving from a predominantly single-technology business into a provider of system flexibility.

Defining test

Today, we’re investing across open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), BESS and renewable generation. Our recommended offer for Bluefield Solar Income Fund has the potential to add approximately 900MW of solar and wind generation. Combined with our other flexible generation assets, our portfolio could exceed 3GW of power capacity if our offer is accepted.

For me, that’s not simply about growing our portfolio. It’s about ensuring we’re investing in the dynamic capabilities the UK will need to power progress. This is where Drax can play a different role not just producing power but helping the system respond when it matters most.

The UK’s electricity system has continually adapted to meet new challenges over the past century, and effectively managing rising demand, intermittency, and more complex patterns of supply and demand will be no different.

That is why the next phase of our energy transition relies not simply on generating more renewable power, but ensuring we have the flexible infrastructure required to use it effectively.

Drax’s Biggest Deal Marks its Next Transformation

31 July 2026

Opinion

Will Gardiner, Drax CEO

For much of the last century, the key question was where electricity would come from. Now, the energy transition is entering a new phase. Increasingly, the question is not where the power would come from but how we can make the system work better.

Britain is seeing record levels of renewable and intermittent generation, growing electricity demand, increasing electrification and the emergence of AI-driven infrastructure that will require substantial new sources of power. At the same time, the system must remain secure, resilient and affordable. No single technology can deliver security, affordability and decarbonisation alone. The system needs renewables, flexible generation and storage working together. And we need to make the most effective use of every asset on the system.

There is a huge opportunity for the UK to unlock further investment in the energy infrastructure needed while supporting growth across the country. But making that opportunity a reality will require government and industry to work closely together to remove barriers to investment, speed up project delivery and accelerate reform of the grid and connection process. It also means making better use of existing infrastructure and connection capacity to meet rising demand and maintain UK competitiveness.

As Britain’s electricity network becomes more dynamic and decentralised, value increasingly comes from connecting technologies together and ensuring they operate efficiently.

Our ambition is to be at the forefront of that evolution.

Today marks an important milestone for Drax in our strategy to do just that, as we complete the acquisition of Bluefield Solar Income Fund.

The transaction adds around 900MW of operational solar and wind assets, alongside a 2.9GW development pipeline including joint ventures, making it the largest acquisition in our company’s history.

This acquisition is not just another addition to our portfolio; it’s about transforming our business to deliver what the UK energy system needs. I have seen Drax change profoundly over the last decade. Each time, the reason has been the same- Britains energy system has changed, and Drax has changed with it. When Drax Power Station was built, Britain needed reliable, dispatchable power to support economic growth and an expanding industrial economy. As climate change became an increasingly urgent challenge, we transformed Western Europe’s largest coal fired power station into Britain’s largest single source of renewable electricity, helping deliver a significant reduction in the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels while maintaining security of supply.

I am proud of Drax’s history, but I’m even more excited about what is coming next.

We are building a portfolio that combines biomass, hydro, pumped storage, battery storage, flexible gas generation, solar power, wind and market optimisation capabilities.

Today’s acquisition is a critical milestone in that strategy. It adds a substantial portfolio of operational solar and wind assets and a significant development pipeline, strengthening our renewable generation business at a time when the country needs more clean power. Combined with our existing flexible generation and battery portfolio, these assets strengthen our ability to support the electricity system during periods of both high renewable output and high demand.

With BESS and OCGT development sites included, our renewable generation business and flexible generation assets combined will have a power capacity of over 3GW – larger than Drax Power Station’s 2.6GW for the first time.

Earlier this year, we also completed the acquisition of Flexitricity, reflecting our belief that technology, optimisation and market participation will become increasingly important components of a successful energy business.

The thread running through this announcement is not just the acquisition of new assets, but that Drax is building a more diverse business built for what Britain needs.

Today’s acquisition helps us build the kind of company that can meet the challenge of energy security, affordability and sustainability. The opportunity ahead is not simply to generate more electricity, but to deliver more value from every megawatt. That is the future of energy — and it is where Drax intends to lead.

Balancing the grid: why optimisation matters more than ever

15 June 2026

Opinion

As more wind and solar power come online, the energy system is becoming more complex to manage. Supply is less predictable, demand is changing, and the need to balance both in real time is greater than ever.

In this discussion, Ross McKenzie brings together Drax CEO Will Gardiner, Chief Commercial Officer Paul Sheffield and Flexitricity CEO Andy Lowe to explore how optimisation is helping to meet that challenge.

Together, they unpack what optimisation means in practice, why it matters now, and how it can make energy systems more flexible, resilient and cost effective.

Watch the video here:

Betting on batteries: addressing intermittent inefficiencies at scale

2 June 2026

Opinion

This article has been republished with permission from ESS News.

As shockwaves from the Iran war continue to ripple through global oil and gas markets, countries across Europe have experienced soaring energy prices. Here in the UK, the average consumer’s power bill price cap has already spiked 18% per year, while businesses are experiencing increases of up to 80%.

At the same time, Spain has been largely insulated from the same supply chain disruptions. Over the last six years, it has invested heavily in renewables – predominantly wind and solar – reducing the influence of fossil generators on its electricity price by 75% since 2019. Many renewables also offer a differentiated source of domestically produced power, which reinforces energy independence and security while hedging against single-source supply chain shocks.

This is yet another proof point that weather-dependent renewables are grid gamechangers, but it’s important to acknowledge that they cannot address all of the challenges we are trying to solve in the UK. We need to keep investing in the wider system.

A high-renewables grid: managing variability with flexibility

Not only do weather-dependent renewables support energy security, but they’re now cost competitive with fossil fuels. However, because intermittent renewables are dependent on external forces like wind and sunshine, they need complementary sources of flexibility to keep supply and demand balanced in real time to address:

  • Oversupply and curtailment. When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing at full force, energy generation sometimes exceeds demand and/or grid capacity limitations. As a result, the UK spends more than £1 billion annually on curtailment, where the government pays generators to reduce or turn off output during these periods.
  • Undersupply and “Dunkelflaute” risk. The weather patterns that hinder wind and solar often offset each other, but sometimes both can falter at the same time. This occurrence – referred to via the German term “Dunkelflaute” – is more likely to occur in the winter, resulting in supply drops right when demand to heat and power homes is at its highest.
  • Day-to-day swings. In a typical day, intermittent renewables have periods of high and low production. At the same time, demand also has high and low periods. These supply low points often correlate with periods of high demand; for example, as solar generation falls away with the sunset, at-home lighting and appliance usage ramps up. This can result in grid strain and higher energy prices during the times when power is needed most but renewables are less available.

The “Duck Curve” is an industry term that refers to the shape created by the peaks and troughs of contrasting energy demand and intermittent renewable energy supply. The chart above visualizes the typical “duck” shape: a high morning peak (the tail), a deep midday dip (the belly) caused by record solar, and a steep evening ramp (the neck) as the sun sets and household demand spikes.

From national security to data security, the UK relies on consistent access to responsible, affordable power. Managing these swings is an integration challenge – not a reason to slow renewables. It’s a reason to accelerate the tools that make a high-renewables grid work to solve inefficiencies and unpredictability that can undermine the system, particularly during times of stress.

Balancing – not compensating for – intermittent volatility

Baseload generation is another key ingredient to stabilise the grid, helping to compensate for these supply swings. While this foundational support has traditionally been supplied through fossil fuels like coal, the UK has moved to more responsible alternatives like natural gas and sustainable biomass to anchor grid fluctuations.

Baseload generation supports grid stability, and weather dependent renewables are also essential but together they still cannot directly address when clean power is produced at the “wrong” time or the “wrong” place. This is where energy storage steps in.

Energy storage, including batteries, pumped hydro, thermal, and chemical solutions, complements intermittent power generation. These technologies can capture excess clean energy when generation is high and deploy it when supply is low, balancing supply and demand and helping flatten the duck curve. Energy storage solutions can extend the benefits of clean power generation and supply, meeting peak demand even when they’re not actively generating power, all while reducing reliance on baseload generation.

The UK plans to double its energy storage by 2030, and Drax is investing in new battery storage projects in the UK accordingly. Building from Drax’s existing long-term hydro storage assets, the company is investing in new projects in the UK to bolster its battery storage portfolio and improve energy security.

Looking to the future, long-duration energy storage (LDES) batteries also have a key role to play. Current economic and market structures favour lithium-ion-based short-term batteries, but it’s only a matter of time until long-term battery technologies become more efficient and affordable, and the rate of adoption is expected to grow exponentially as a result.

Recent geopolitical conflicts have reiterated the importance of a diversified, balanced energy system. Nations that adapt toward a system built on flexible generation and storage – designed to deliver reliability, affordability, and sustainability while insulating against future shocks – will have a clear advantage, both today and in years to come. We believe there is no better time than now to bet on batteries as part of the UK’s evolution to a more flexible energy system.

Why the energy transition demands a new playbook

1 June 2026

Opinion

During the last bank holiday weekend, as Britain basked in the sunshine, the national grid quietly made history. Demand plummeted to an all-time low of just 12.6GW – roughly the average daily demand of the Philippines. This was nearly four times less than we consumed on a cold, dark Thursday evening in January when the nation cranked up the heating and turned on the kettle. 

Seasonal demand swings are nothing new, and for decades have proved a rule that traditional, dispatchable assets like Drax Power Station are the backbone of our energy security. But in this week of warm weather and unprecedented low demand, solar has generated as much as half of the power Britain consumed – an unthinkable achievement ten years ago.  

Intermittent wind and solar, battery storage, electric vehicles and AI are changing our energy system profoundly and in real time. How government, the system operator and companies like Drax manage this change can be measured not in the millions but in the billions of pounds of difference to the British economy every year.  

At Drax our mission has always been to deliver what the country needs. For over sixty years, our assets have provided secure electricity to millions of the UK’s households and businesses. When climate change became a national imperative, we did what many thought impossible and transformed Western Europe’s largest coal fired power station into Britain’s largest single source of renewable electricity. Today, we are once more investing to deliver in the national interest. 

Our recommended offer for Bluefield Solar Income Fund is a key moment for our business and its next phase. This would be the largest deal in our history, and with BESS and OCGT development sites included, our renewable generation business and flexible generation assets combined will have a larger power capacity of over 3GW than Drax Power Station’s 2.6GW for the first time.

Potentially adding around 900MW of solar and wind with another 2.9GW pipeline of development, including JVs, into the Drax portfolio could mean we are able to keep the lights on whether it is a baking hot bank holiday or a damp and dreary January. And critically the cost of power generated by solar and wind is not impacted by the ongoing situation in the Strait of Hormuz. 

We’re building a diverse portfolio of hydro, batteries, gas, and now potentially wind and solar alongside a trading capability that will enable us to help deliver the UK’s energy security efficiently and affordably. We’re proud to have been at the heart of Britain’s energy system for sixty years, and we’re investing in and evolving our business now to ensure we continue to deliver what the country needs for decades to come. 

Please find the full announcement of the recommended acquisition of BSIF through the following link: https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/drax_group/news/rns/story/r7kk2zw

Commissioning of First OCGT Plant

29 May 2026

News

RNS Number: 1217G
Drax Group plc
(“Drax” or the “Company”; Symbol:DRX)

Drax is pleased to announce that commissioning of Hirwaun Power Station is now complete and Drax has assumed commercial control from the developer Metlen Energy & Metals. Hirwaun, which is located in South Wales, is the first of three 299MW Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) plants which Drax is developing in England and Wales.

Drax Group CEO, Will Gardiner, said: “The successful commissioning of our first OCGT plant is a landmark moment for Drax.

“The energy transition is creating opportunities for us to invest and grow our business in line with the country’s energy needs. Alongside our OCGT developments, we have made initial investments in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), which we see as an attractive market. We are continuing to explore options to invest in flexible and renewable energy, supporting energy security, creating value for stakeholders and attractive returns for shareholders in line with our capital allocation policy.”

The three OCGTs combined will provide capacity of c.900MW when fully commissioned and be remunerated via a combination of peak power generation, system support services, and long-term index-linked Capacity Market agreements. These Capacity Market agreements extend to 2039 and are worth over £260 million in revenue.

The sites benefit from a low fixed cost base with operation and dispatch managed centrally by Drax and day-to-day management of the sites by Siemens Energy.

Power generation and system support capabilities

The flexibility of OCGTs allows them to switch on and off quickly to meet periods of high demand, which supports the increased use of intermittent renewables across the UK system, supporting energy security, with a reduced dependence on fossil fuels and a reduction in net carbon emissions.

In addition, the OCGTs have been built with a clutch mechanism between the turbine and generator, allowing for them to operate as a Synchronous Compensator, which can provide additional non-generation services, such as inertia and voltage control, without engaging the gas turbine.

With the evolution of the UK market, continued roll out of renewables and an increased focus on energy security, Drax believe that demand for and value of these types of services will increase.

Featured image credit: Metlen Energy and Minerals

Enquiries:

Drax Investor Relations:

Mark Strafford
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7730 763 949

Media:

Drax External Communications:

Aidan Kerr
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7849 090 368

Website: www.drax.com