Peaking plants are meant to be a backstop, but their profits and exemption from windfall tax are controversial in an energy crisis
At the entrance to the old munitions factory, a pair of ornamental lions stand guard, each with a stone paw resting on a cannonball. The Coryton complex in Essex dates back to 1895, and its use has changed over the years. Behind the lions loom the grey girders of a gas-fired power plant capable of generating electricity for up to 800,000 homes – and substantial profits for its owner.
Debate is raging over the role of gas-fired electricity in the energy crisis. Coryton is one of a fleet of UK peaking plants, so-called because they tend to be fired up at peak consumption times, a backstop when other contributors to the grid, such as windfarms, underperform. But they also attract some of the highest rates per megawatt hour (MWh) of any power source, and those rates have jumped with the gas price since the invasion of Ukraine,leading to calls for their profits to be capped.
