Tag: Will Gardiner

Laying down the pathway to carbon capture in a net zero UK

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

17 July 2019

Opinion
Humber bridge

The starting gun has fired and the challenge is underway. The government has officially set 2050 as the target year in which the UK will achieve carbon neutrality.

There’s no denying this economy-wide transformation will need a great deal of investment. Reaching net zero carbon emissions will require an evolutionary overhaul of not just Great Britain’s electricity system but the UK economy as a whole. And indeed, the way we live our lives and go about our business.

But that doesn’t mean it’s out of reach. Instead it will fall to technologies such as carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS), as well as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), to make it economical and possible.

The secret to making decarbonisation affordable

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC) estimates the price of decarbonisation will cost as little as 1% of forecast GDP per annum in 2050.

However, the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Select Committee inquiry found that failure to deploy CCUS and BECCS technology could double the cost to 2%. There are a number of reasons for this, such as the cost to jobs, productivity and living standards of shutting down industrial emitters. CCUS’s ability to contribute to a hydrogen economy can help avoid this.

Moreover, the CCC claims even with industries striving to decarbonise rapidly, as much as 100 megatonnes of hard-to-abate carbon dioxide (CO2) is expected to remain in the UK economy by 2050.

This makes carbon negative techniques and technologies, such as BECCS – which uses woody biomass that has absorbed carbon in its lifetime as forests – alongside direct air capture (DAC), the boosting of ocean plant productivity, much greater tree planting and better sequestration of carbon in soil, essential if the UK is to attain true carbon neutrality.

The importance of BECCS and CCUS in the zero carbon future is clear. Now is the time for rapid development. Not in 2030, not in 2040, but today in 2019 and into the 2020s.

But doing this requires the government to move beyond its historic policies that have failed to support the technology in the past. Progress needs long-term frameworks that provide private sector investors with the certainty they need to kick-start the commercial-scale deployment of CCUS technologies.

Laying down the tracks to negative emissions  

For carbon capture to become an integrated part of the energy system it must deliver value well beyond the energy sector. Establishing markets for products developed from captured carbon will play a role here, but to set the wheels in motion, financial frameworks are needed that can allow BECCS and CCUS to thrive.

One device that can allow the market to develop CCUS is the creation of contracts for difference (CfDs) for carbon capture. These currently exist in the low-carbon generation space, between generators and the government-owned Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC). Through these contracts, power generators are paid the difference between their cost of generating low carbon electricity (known as a strike price) and the price of electricity in Great Britain’s wholesale power market. If the power price in the market is higher than the strike price generators pay the difference back to the LCCC, meaning consumers are protected from price spikes too.

It means that the generator is protected from market volatility or big drops in the wholesale price of power, offering the security to invest in new technology. More than this, CfDs last many years meaning they transcend political cycles and the cost per megawatt can be reduced with a longer contract. Creating a market for carbon capture or negative emissions generation could offer the same security to generators to invest in the technology.

A CfD for BECCS should not only incentivise the building of infrastructure to capture carbon, but we must also recognise the valuable role that negative emissions can play. By compensating BECCS producers for their negative emissions, it should provide a lower cost alternative to reducing all other CO2 emissions to zero, while still ensuring that the UK can get to net zero.

Beyond installing carbon capture at existing generation sites, one of the major financial barriers to the wider deployment of CCUS and BECCS is the cost and liability associated with transporting and storing captured carbon.

A Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding model, would encourage investment by gradually recovering the costs of transport and storage via a regulated return. This approach is currently under consideration as a means of financing other major infrastructure projects.

A RAB allows businesses, including investment and pension funds, to invest in projects under the oversight of a government regulator. In exchange for their commitment, investors can collect a fee through regular consumer and non-domestic bills.

Led by industry; guided by government

Ultimately, the current carbon trading system is based around charging polluters. But as we approach a post-coal UK and in order to achieve net zero, it’s necessary for this to evolve – from economically disincentivising emissions to incentivising carbon-negative power generation.

However, with the cost of carbon capture and negative emissions differing between types of industries and technologies, there’s a requirement to consider differentiated carbon prices to guide industry through long-term strategy. But the need for carbon capture development is too pressing for us as an industry to wait.

At Drax Power Station our BECCS pilot is just the beginning of our wider ambitions to become the first negative emissions power station. Our use of biomass already makes Drax Power Station the largest generator of renewable electricity in Great Britain. The responsibly-managed working forests our suppliers source from absorbed carbon from the atmosphere as they grew so adding carbon capture at scale to this supply chain can turn our operation from low carbon, to carbon-neutral and eventually carbon negative.

And we have bigger plans still to create a net zero carbon industrial cluster in the Humber region, in partnership with Equinor and National Grid. The cluster would deliver carbon capture at the scale needed to not just decarbonise the most carbon-intensive industrial region in the UK, but to put the country at the forefront of the decarbonisation of industry and manufacturing.

Government action is needed to make CCUS and BECCS economically sustainable at scale as an integrated part of our energy system. However, the onus is on us, the energy industry to lead development and act as trusted partners that can deliver the decarbonisation needed to reach net zero carbon by 2050.

Learn more about carbon capture, usage and storage in our series:

The roadmap to zero carbon

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

1 October 2018

Opinion

The UK has come a long way in its efforts to decarbonise. Greenhouse gas emissions last year were 43% below 1990 levels, while increasing renewable electricity generation and a strengthening carbon price means the country could soon go coal-free for an entire summer.

There is still, however, much work needed to reach the UK target of reducing emissions to 20% of 1990 levels by 2050 and meeting the Paris Agreement’s aim of keeping temperature increases below two degrees Celsius. As ambitious as these goals may be, recent research by the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) believes they can be met by 2050, with the right government policies and action from businesses.

To help to mitigate man made climate change, all industries, across all sectors must cut carbon emissions. It’s a big challenge but a clear first step must be the decarbonisation of electricity generation. This step will enable other industries to reduce their emissions in turn through electrification.

Since 2000 we have been building our experience in decarbonising electrical generation, transforming what was once Western Europe’s largest coal-fired power station into the UK’s biggest decarbonisation project. This puts us in a unique position to offer the leadership and innovation needed – across the electricity industry and other sectors – to reach a zero-carbon world.

Electricity generation will lead decarbonisation

The electrification of carbon-intensive sectors, such as transport and heating, will only contribute to reducing overall emissions if the electricity comes from mostly low or zero-carbon sources.

The ETC’s research suggests wind and solar will be capable of providing 85% of the world’s electricity generation by 2050. When these intermittent sources are unable to generate electricity the remaining 15% will come from a combination of nuclear, hydro, biomass and storage (including batteries, pumped storage and new technologies).

In fact, biomass alone could provide as much as half of that 15% but it is critical that this flexible, renewable, low carbon fuel must be sustainably sourced. For the wood biomass we use at Drax Power Station, its sourcing should contribute to growing and healthy forests, which will be another key part of the climate change solution.

Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax Group

At Drax, we have a long history of finding ways to cut emissions and improve the efficiency of our own biomass pellet supply chain, from bigger ships to more efficient rail freight loading and unloading.

The skills and experiences gained from these efforts serve not only to decarbonise our business but will benefit other supply chain-based industries along the path to lower-carbon emissions. More than this, it is far from the only way we are working towards doing this.

From here to zero-carbon

One of the biggest hopes for removing carbon from industry lies in carbon capture and storage. We’re leading the charge on bringing this technology to the fore by running a six-month pilot of a Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) system, which will capture a tonne of carbon every day from one of our four, 600+ megawatt (MW) biomass units.

Capturing emissions not only further reduces the carbon intensiveness of electricity generators of all kinds, but also opens new revenue streams for businesses through utilising captured carbon. For Drax, BECCS takes us another step towards becoming a carbon negative operation, where we remove more carbon from the atmosphere than we emit. It is also an opportunity to further expand the knowledge and experience of our team and become leading experts in a field which will be essential in meeting climate change goals.

Alongside this, our plans to repower the last of our coal-fired units to highly-efficient combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) and build four, rapid-response open cycle gas turbines (OCGT) will give the electricity system the flexibility needed to support more intermittent renewable sources. The abilities of gas plant in balancing and system services can help to complete the journey away from coal before 2025. In subsequent decades, gas can play a pivotal role assisting the transition to a zero-carbon power system.

Our retail businesses, Haven Power and Opus Energy, also allow us to help companies and the public sector outside of electricity generation to reduce their carbon footprint. Beyond just supplying renewable electricity, we’re also looking at ways through closer customer partnerships to help businesses leverage new technologies to use electricity more efficiently and in turn lower their costs.

Reaching a zero-carbon future is a monumental task for electricity producers that depends on innovative thinking and new technologies. We have the experience in developing transformative ideas and making them a reality – all of which will be essential in guiding us into a brighter, more stable, decarbonised future.

Half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2018

24 July 2018

Investors
RNS Number :  5142V
Drax Group PLC
Six months ended 30 JuneH1 2018H1 2017
Key financial performance measures
EBITDA (£ million)(1)102121
Underlying earnings (£ million)(2)79
Underlying earnings per share (pence)(2)1.62.2
Interim dividends (pence per share)5.64.9
Net cash from operating activities (£ million)112197
Net debt (£ million)(3)366372
Statutory accounting measures
Operating profit/(loss) (£ million)12(61)
Loss before tax (£ million)(11)(104)
Reported basic loss per share (pence)(1)(21)

Financial and Operational Highlights

  • H1 EBITDA lower year on year due to two unplanned outages, other areas performing well
  • Statutory loss before tax includes lower level of H1 EBITDA and asset write off
  • Refinancing complete – swapped floating for fixed rate debt with 7.5-year maturity
  • Sustainable and growing dividend
    • Increase in 2018 interim dividend to £22.4 million (5.6 pence per share) (H1 2017: £20 million)
    • Expected 2018 full year dividend of £56 million
    • Ongoing £50 million share buy-back programme – £13 million at 30 June 2018

Good progress with strategic initiatives, on track to deliver long-term objectives

  • Third biomass pellet plant, LaSalle Bioenergy, commissioning ahead of plan – full capacity Q1 2019
  • Conversion of fourth biomass generating unit on schedule and budget, commissioning late summer
  • Programme for long-term reduction in biomass cost including sawmill co-location and rail spur investment
  • Confident in growing requirement for system support services over coming years
  • Development of options for future generation:
    • Coal-to-gas repowering – detailed planning application accepted for review June 2018
    • Four OCGTs(4) – two projects in next capacity market auction, planning applications accepted for review for remaining two projects
  • B2B Energy Supply delivering solid progress to grow number of customer meters

2018 outlook

  • Full year financial expectations unchanged
    • Generation – fourth biomass unit conversion, improved margins, on target availability and capacity payments
    • Continued growth in Pellet Production and B2B Energy Supply
  • Capital Markets Day, 13 November

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive of Drax Group plc, said:

“Drax continues to be at the heart of decarbonising UK energy, securing government support to convert a fourth unit to biomass and piloting a Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage project, supporting the UK Government’s carbon capture and storage ambitions.

“Full year EBITDA expectations remain unchanged. However, first half EBITDA was lower, principally due to two specific generation outages. We made excellent progress with our Pellet Production business, driving down costs while producing at record levels and our B2B Energy Supply business continues to increase customer numbers. We also remain on track with our investment projects: the conversion of a fourth unit to biomass, and the development of our OCGT and coal-to-gas repowering options.

“We remain focused on safe and efficient operations and returns to shareholders and expect to declare a full year dividend of £56 million for 2018.”

Group Financial Review

  • Increase to operating profit includes unrealised gains on derivative contracts of £24 million (2017: loss £86 million)
  • Decrease in underlying earnings per share – principally reflects lower EBITDA from biomass generation in H1 2018 vs H1 2017
  • Reported basic earnings per share – a loss of 1.0 pence, which includes write off of coal-specific assets (£27 million) following commencement of fourth biomass unit conversion, largely offset by unrealised gains on derivative contracts (£24 million)
  • Tax – tax credit reflecting benefit of Patent Box claims
  • Capital investment of £46 million, full year investment expectation unchanged at £100–£110 million
    • Core maintenance (£50 million), improvement and optimisation projects (£20-£30 million) and conversion of a fourth biomass unit (£30 million)
  • Net debt of £366 million (31 Dec 2017: £367 million), including cash on hand of £245 million

Operational Review

Pellet Production – Good quality pellets at lowest cost

  • EBITDA up £14 million to £10 million
    • 80% increase in pellet production to 0.7 million tonnes (H1 2017: 0.4 million tonnes)
    • 12% reduction in cost per tonne
  • LaSalle Bioenergy (LaSalle) commissioning complete, full capacity Q1 2019
  • Biomass cost reduction initiatives
    • Co-location and offtake agreement with Hunt Forest Products for low-cost sawmill residues at LaSalle
    • Investment in LaSalle rail spur (£11 million) – reduced transport cost to Baton Rouge port facility

Power Generation – Optimisation of existing assets and decarbonisation projects

  • EBITDA down £49 million to £88 million
    • Rail unloading building outage restricted operation of two ROC(5) units (January 2018)
    • Generator outage on one ROC(5) unit (February 2018)
    • System support and flexibility £36 million (H1 2017: £48 million) – lower due to specific Black Start contract (Q1 2017)
    • Offset by 2016 insurance proceeds and lower carbon cost following decision to convert a fourth unit to biomass
  • Electricity output (net sales) down 17% to 8.9TWh (H1 2017: 10.7TWh)
    • Two unplanned outages on ROC(5) units in Q1 and reduced coal generation
    • High biomass availability in Q2
  • 71% of generation from biomass (H1 2017: 68%)
  • Commenced Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) pilot project, £0.4 million cost

B2B Energy Supply – Profitable business with growth in customer meters

  • EBITDA up £4 million to £16 million
    • 9% increase in customer meter points to 387,000 (H1 2017: 356,000)
    • Increase in bad debt reflecting challenging business environment for some customers
  • Strong renewable proposition – 59% of sales renewable
  • Continued investment in next generation IT systems
  • Development of flexibility and system support market

Notes:

  1. EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and material one-off items that do not reflect the underlying trading performance of the business.
  2. Underlying earnings exclude unrealised gains on derivative contracts of £24m (H1 2017: unrealised losses of £86m) and material one-off items that do not reflect the underlying performance of the business (finance costs of £7m (2017: £24m), acquisition and restructuring costs of £3m (2017: £6m), write off of coal-specific assets of £27m (H1 2017: £Nil), and the associated tax effect.
  3. Borrowings less cash and cash equivalents.
  4. Open Cycle Gas Turbine.
  5. Renewable Obligation Certificate.

View complete half year report

View analyst presentation

Drax Group plc Chief Executive comments on full year results

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

27 February 2018

Investors
Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax Group

We continued to transform the business in 2017, delivering a strong EBITDA performance, in line with expectations. This was delivered by all parts of the business making positive contributions for the first time.

We also made good progress delivering our strategy, which is clear and unchanged. We are increasing biomass self-supply, developing projects to diversify our generation mix and growing our B2B energy supply business.

The UK is undergoing an energy revolution, starting with a significant reduction in carbon emissions, and to support that we are helping to change the way energy is generated, supplied and used.

View full report

View investor relations presentation

Drax Group plc: Full year results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2017

Investors
RNS Number : 9871F
Drax Group PLC
Twelve months ended 31 December20172016
Key financial performance measures
EBITDA (£ million)(1)229140
Underlying profit after tax (£ million)(2)321
Underlying earnings per share (pence)(2)0.75.0
Total dividends (pence per share)12.32.5
Net cash from operating activities (£ million)315191
Net debt (£ million)(3)36793
Statutory accounting measures
(Loss) / profit before tax (£ million)(183)197
Reported basic (loss) / earnings per share (pence)(37.2)47.7

All areas of the business contributing to positive EBITDA for the first time

  • EBITDA up 64% to £229 million – improving earnings quality from biomass generation and Opus Energy
    • Pellet Production – EBITDA up £12 million to £6 million – 35% growth in production
    • Power Generation – EBITDA up £64 million to £238 million – contribution from biomass generation
    • B2B Energy Supply – EBITDA up £33 million to £29 million –acquisition of Opus Energy
  • Strong cash flow generation and balance sheet – 1.6x net debt to EBITDA
  • Final dividend of £30 million, representing 60% of the recommended full year – £50 million
  • £50 million share buy back programme consistent with capital allocation policy
  • Statutory loss before tax principally driven by unrealised losses related to foreign currency hedging of £156 million

Delivering strategy and remain on course to hit >£425 million EBITDA target by 2025

  • Accelerated energy supply growth with acquisition and on-boarding of Opus Energy
  • Increased biomass self-supply through acquisition and commissioning of third biomass pellet plant, LaSalle Bioenergy
  • Government support received for fourth biomass unit conversion at Drax Power Station
  • Development of options for future generation: coal-to-gas repowering option, two OCGTs (4) to enter next capacity market auction in December 2018

Focused on operational excellence and investment in strategy

  • Continued focus on safety, operational excellence and project development
  • Targeted investment in long-term growth opportunities
  • Continued growth in EBITDA and cash generation
  • Sustainable and growing dividend, with opportunities to return capital in line with policy

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive of Drax Group plc, said:

“We continued to transform the business in 2017, delivering a strong EBITDA performance, in line with expectations. This was delivered by all parts of the business making positive contributions for the first time.

“We also made good progress delivering our strategy, which is clear and unchanged. We are increasing biomass self-supply, developing projects to diversify our generation mix and growing our B2B energy supply business.

“The UK is undergoing an energy revolution, starting with a significant reduction in carbon emissions, and to support that we are helping to change the way energy is generated, supplied and used.”

Notes for analysts and editors

2017 Group Financial Review

  • Underlying earnings per share decreased to 0.7 pence
    • Accelerated depreciation of coal-specific assets, amortisation of intangible assets associated with the acquisition of Opus Energy and an increase in net finance charges.
  • Reported basic earnings per share – a loss of 37 pence, which includes unrealised losses on derivative contracts of £156 million (principally related to the foreign currency hedging programme) in addition to one-off items – transaction costs relating to the acquisition of Opus Energy (£8 million) and refinancing (£24 million)
  • Tax – one-off non-cash charge of £16 million – a reduction in US federal tax rates from 35% to 21% resulting in a revaluation of deferred tax balances, offset by £13 million cash tax credit from UK Patent Box tax regime, which rewards Drax patented innovation in biomass generation
  • Investment in line with guidance
    • Acquisition of Opus Energy (£367 million)
    • Acquisition and commissioning of LaSalle Bioenergy (£48 million)
    • Maintenance and improvement (£133 million) including pellet plant optimisation, strategic spares, Haven Power information systems, research and innovation and Opus Energy office consolidation
    • Continue to expect ongoing maintenance capital investment of £50-60 million per year
  • Net debt of £367 million (31 Dec 2016: £93 million), including cash on hand of £222 million

2017 Operational Review

Pellet Production – Focus on good quality pellets at lowest cost

  • 35% increase in pellet production to 0.8M tonnes (2016 0.6M tonnes)
  • Low-cost expansion of Amite and Morehouse plants complete
  • Improving operational performance whilst providing supply chain flexibility
  • LaSalle Bioenergy commissioning ahead of plan from November 2017, increasing output through 2018
  • Biomass self-supply increased

Power Generation – Focus on optimisation of existing assets and development of projects

  • Electricity output (net sales) 20.0TWh (2016: 19.6TWh)
  • 65% of generation from renewables (2016: 65%)
  • £88 million from system support and flexibility
  • £90 million capacity market payments secured for 2017-2022

B2B Energy Supply – Profitable business with growth in sales and customer meters

  • 12% increase in customer meter points to more than 375,000
  • 46% of energy sales from renewables
  • Opus Energy EBITDA in line with plan; Haven Power exceeded EBITDA breakeven target
  • Continued investment in next generation IT systems

Notes:

(1)  EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and material one-off items that do not reflect the underlying trading performance of the business.

(2)  2017 underlying earnings exclude unrealised losses on derivative contracts of £156 million and material one-off items that do not reflect the underlying performance of the business (2016: unrealised gains of £177 million).

(3)  Borrowings less cash and cash equivalents.

(4)  Open Cycle Gas Turbine.

Contacts

Enquiries:

Drax Investor Relations: Mark Strafford

+44 (0) 1757 612 491

Media:

Drax External Communications: Ali Lewis

+44 (0) 1757 612 165

 

View full report

View investor relations presentation

Appointment of Interim Chief Financial Officer

27 October 2017

Investors
RNS Number : 7736U
DRAX GROUP PLC
(Symbol: DRX)

Following the recent announcement that Will Gardiner will succeed Dorothy Thompson as Chief Executive Officer of Drax Group from 1 January 2018, the Board is progressing a process to appoint a permanent Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as soon as practicable.

In the meantime, Den Jones has been appointed as Interim CFO of the Group from 1 November 2017 and will work with Will Gardiner to ensure a smooth transition.

Den was previously CFO of Johnson Matthey, a FTSE 100 specialty chemicals company and has held senior and executive positions, including Interim CFO, in BG Group, a major global energy company. He spent the early part of his career in banking and professional services with Citibank and PwC where he held a number of specialist financial management positions.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations:

Mark Strafford

+44 (0) 1757 612 491

Media:

External Communications:

Ali Lewis

+44 (0) 1757 612165

Website: www.drax.com

END

Will Gardiner to succeed Dorothy Thompson as Chief Executive of Drax Group

21 September 2017

Investors
RNS Number : 3929R
DRAX GROUP PLC
(Symbol: DRX)

Drax Group plc announces that Will Gardiner, currently Group Chief Financial Officer, is to be appointed as Group Chief Executive with effect from 1 January 2018. The appointment results from Dorothy Thompson’s decision to step down after 12 successful years as Group Chief Executive. Dorothy will leave the Group at the end of 2017.

Will joined Drax as Group Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Group Board in November 2015. The Board has kept succession planning well under review and his new appointment comes after a thorough selection process involving internal and external candidates.

Drax Chairman, Philip Cox said: “We are delighted Will is to become Chief Executive. He has been a key architect of our new strategy and is a focused, innovative and engaging leader. His appointment is a natural progression after two years working alongside Dorothy developing an ambitious strategy which I am confident will create significant benefits for all Drax’s stakeholders.

“On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Dorothy for her enormous contribution to Drax. She transformed the business during her tenure and leaves the Group in a strong position with a clear strategy that lays the foundations for further success in a changing energy sector.”

Will Gardiner said: “I am thrilled to be appointed as Group Chief Executive at this exciting time for Drax. The changes we are seeing in the UK energy sector are unprecedented and we have an opportunity to thrive while doing the right thing for the UK energy market. Drax’s people have demonstrated repeatedly their ability to deliver transformational change and I’m delighted to be working with them to build on Dorothy’s strong legacy.”

Dorothy Thompson said: “Drax Group plays a strategic role in the UK electricity sector generating around 16% of UK renewable electricity, is a world leader in the production of wood pellets and is a leading challenger brand in the supply of electricity to businesses. I retire knowing the Group is in excellent shape: it has the right strategy, the right team and in Will, the right leader.”

The Board will now commence a process to appoint a new Group Chief Financial Officer and will also review the option to make an appointment on an interim basis. 

No other disclosure obligations arise under paragraphs (1) to (6) of LR 9.6.13 R of the UK Listing Authority’s Listing Rules in respect of Will Gardiner’s appointment as Chief Executive of Drax Group plc.

Enquiries:

Drax Investor Relations:

Mark Strafford

+44 (0) 1757 612 491

+44 (0) 7730 763 949

Media:

Drax External Communications:

Matt Willey

+44 (0) 1757 612 285

+44 (0) 7711 376 087

Website: www.drax.com

Notes:

Will Gardiner joined Drax in November 2015 as Group Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Group Board. He is currently responsible for Finance, Strategy, and IT Systems.

Prior to joining Drax Will was Chief Financial Officer of CSR plc, a global semiconductor business.  He had previously been a Divisional Finance Director of BSKYB and Chief Financial Officer of Easynet Group plc.

At both CSR and Easynet Will’s focus was on driving transformational change to take advantage of new market opportunities. He is also a non-executive member on the Board of Qardio plc, a wireless medical devices company. Will is also a Trustee of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a London-based charity that supports local journalists and civic activists in areas of crisis and change around the world.

Will graduated from Harvard University with a BA Magna Cum Laude in Russian and Soviet Studies and from Johns Hopkins University with an MA in International Relations. He spent the early part of his career in corporate finance with Citibank and JP Morgan.

END

Understanding the pounds behind the power

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

26 July 2017

Opinion

Editor’s note: On 21st September 2017 the Board announced that Will Gardiner would replace Dorothy Thompson as Chief Executive, Drax Group as of 1st January 2018. Read the announcement to the London Stock Exchange. This story was written by Will two months prior to that announcement and remains unedited below.

The UK electricity market used to be simpler. Coal, gas and nuclear plants generated energy and fed power into the National Grid. Retail companies then delivered that power to homes and businesses across the country thanks to regional distribution network operators. Today, it’s not as simple. The energy system of Great Britain has grown more complex – it needed to.

The push to lower carbon emissions led to the introduction of an array of different power generation technologies and fuels to the energy mix. These all generate power in different ways, at different times and in different conditions. Added to this are government schemes that have changed how this is all funded. In short, our electricity market is now more complex.

Drax Group has transformed itself to align with this new system. It is now an energy company with complementary operations across its supply chain – sourcing fuel, generating 17% of Great Britain’s renewable power and then selling much of that electricity directly to business customers in the retail market. This has fundamentally changed both how we do business and the financial mechanisms behind the business.

Where are we now?

Drax’s financial and operating strategies are very much inter-linked. Shifting how we generate energy changes how we generate revenue. The company is structured according to a set of distinct business segments, each of which is treated in a slightly different way.

The generation business

Drax has adapted its business model to the UK government’s regulatory framework, which through successive administrations has broadly promoted investment in renewable and low carbon power generation. Three of our six electricity generation units – accounting for 68% of our output in the first half of 2017 – have been upgraded from coal to produce renewable electricity from sustainable compressed wood pellets. These units are a core part of Britain’s renewable energy mix. Guaranteed income from the third unit conversion has given us a significantly higher degree of earnings visibility and reduced our exposure to commodity prices.

H1, 2017: 10.7 TWh total generation; 7.3 TWh biomass generation

Our coal generation units no longer provide 24/7 baseload electricity. This means we primarily use our coal generation as a support system. When the grid needs it we can ramp up and down coal generation responding to demand and ancillary service needs. Our renewable generation units do this too. Ultimately, however, our long-term goal is to convert the remaining coal units – either to renewables or to gas. Our Research and Innovation team is currently looking into how we might be able to do this, but early indications show that coal-to-gas conversion could be an attractive option for delivering flexible and reliable generation capacity for the UK.

Drax Power is doing well and generated £137m of EBITDA in the first half of this year, a £51m increase compared to the first half of 2016.

We are confident about the projected growth of our power generation business to £300 million EBITDA by 2025. That plan is aided by our move into rapid response gas – a technology that can meet urgent needs of a power system that includes an increasing amount of weather-dependent renewables. Two of the four rapid response gas projects we’re developing are ready to bid for 15-year capacity market contracts this coming February. They are designed to start up from cold faster than coal and combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units. These small-yet-powerful plants will respond to short-term power market price signals and be capable of providing other, ancillary services to further enhance security of supply.

These projects should add an attractive additional source of earnings to our generation business. They also will have attractive characteristics, as a significant element of their earnings will come from the capacity market – guaranteed government income for 15 years.

The retail business

We directly serve the retail market through Haven Power, which supplies renewable electricity primarily to industrial and commercial customers. Last week we announced that Haven Power was able to break-even six months ahead of schedule. Retail is an area we’re growing, and in February 2017 we acquired Opus Energy, the largest non-domestic UK energy company by meters installed outside the Big Six. This has had a marked effect – today we’re the largest challenger B2B energy retailer in the UK.

There is a healthy and regular annuity coming in through the existing retail business, and we believe this can generate £80 million of EBITDA by 2025, which, together with our growing biomass supply business, will make up a third of our earnings. We demonstrated good progress in the first half of the year, earning £11m of EBITDA.

The biomass business

Our two operational wood pellet manufacturing plants in Louisiana and Mississippi are progressing well. They are both still ramping up to full production and have seen marked improvements in pellet quality and production.

We are looking to grow our US business and as part of this we’ll need to build on the recent addition of LaSalle BioEnergy with further acquisitions. Expansion will grow our capacity for the self-supply of pellets from 15% to 30% of Drax Power Station’s requirements, adding an additional one million tonnes of production.

In the second half of 2017, we expect the profitability of Drax Biomass to increase. LaSalle will be commissioned in the first half of 2018 and reach capacity in 2019.

What’s next?

The energy landscape continues to change and we’ll need to change with it. Phasing out coal entirely is priority number one. For this we’ll continue to look at options. How and when we can convert more units to sustainable biomass depends on trials that we are conducting at Drax Power Station during 2017-18. The right government support would also make further conversions cost effective.

We also recognise that it’s important to look at alternative possibilities for our remaining coal units. This is why we are seeking planning permission to convert one or more of our 645 MW (megawatt) coal units to 1,300 MW of gas. Such an upgrade would be at a discount to a new-build, combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station of equivalent capacity. And that’s simply because we would use much of the existing infrastructure and equipment.

Another major prospect is in the technology space and so we’re continuing to invest in research and innovation. Batteries and storage are a huge opportunity for us – both in how they could benefit our retail customers, and how they could provide solutions for large-scale centralised energy systems. In short, it’s an area with huge potential. We welcome the government’s recent initiatives designed to stimulate the development of battery technology, as well as encourage the use of electric vehicles.

Drax has gone through a period of considerable change and that will continue as we meet the UK’s low-carbon energy demands. We are improving the quality of our earnings, reducing our exposure to commodities, and positioning to take advantage of future opportunities. As we told investors in June, if we deliver on these plans, we can expect >£425 million of EBITDA in 2025.