Further reporting failure of Drax Power Station exposed by BBC News

BBC News has found that the UK power station which has obtained billions of pounds in government subsidies has failed more than once.

The drakes power station, which burns wooden pellets, requires reporting where it is its wood and whether it is from natural, first untouched forests.

The company paid a fine of £ 25M last year, which incorrectly introduces this data to get this data incorrectly and now the BBC has discovered another year misinformation which by the regulator Not seen.

The company did not refuse to call its stability data wrong, but said it “focuses on implementing the lessons learned”.

Power stations, a converted coal plant in Northern Yorkshire, generates about 6% of the UK electricity and the government and the billions of subsidies have received billions of pounds in subsidies as the wood-cloak is classified as a source of renewable energy. Has gone.

The BBC Panorama and BBC News have previously stated that Drax conducted a logging license in British Columbia, Canada and used wood with full trees from primary and old-developed forests for its pellets.

These are natural forests that have never been industrially logged in and lock and store in significant amounts and also provide major wildlife housing.

The company says that it does not own forests or saws, no longer she bid for license logging and has stopped wood sourcing from some sites, where the British Columbia Government asked companies to stop further logging. Is.

However, in public logging records, drakes still reflect the entire trees from primary forests that have fallen by other companies in the province, their own stability criteria states that the company will “avoid damage or disturbances to high carbon forests” “Can be defined” as primary forest “.

The modern industrial logging began in the interior of British Columbia only in the 1960s, which means that areas that have been logged in and repeated in recent decades are not yet mature enough for these gardens.

Almost all industrial logging in the interior of the province “are from Woodland of native species, where there are no clear indications of human activities and ecological processes are not quite disturbing”, used by Togem to define primary forests Word to go. ,

Drax was required to report to the Ofgem that it had sour wood from these areas, but the data obtained by the BBC through environmental information requests shows that the company shows the stability presented to the regulator about its Canadian wood pellets The data has failed to announce any wood from primary forests for the year 2020-21.

That year Drakes burnt only 1.2 million tonnes of wooden pellets from Canada, with a significant proportion from the primary forests in the interior of British Columbia.

The company did not answer the BBC questions as to why it has declared its stability data wrong and whether it has misled both the government and the energy regulator on the use of wood from primary forests.

Drakes seem to have appeared since by reducing their dependence on Canadian wood. The company said that about 2.5% of the pellets used at its power station in 2023 came from British Columbia, mainly nominated for harvesting from public forests.

The company said that it “constantly recognizes the importance of sour biomass, and we work to ensure that our pellets are legally cut and the UK, US and Canadian governments as well as the European Union’s strict Stability meets requirements. “

The current biomass stability criteria of the UK do not restrict the entire trees from the primary forests being used for wooden pellets.

The company stated that the misconception of the earlier identified by the company was “technical in nature” and would not have not affected the level of ROC (subsidy) “.

According to the OFGEM, the accurate stability data enables the government to “use and monitor both the primary forests and saws in the woody biomass, which results in carbon emissions and biodiversity”.

Last year after his investigation and to give misinformation to the data, the post -25m fine after Drax, The Regulator of the Regulator of the Drax said that it would “not hesitate to work” in the event of wrongdoing.

However, when contacted by the BBC, the regulator did not commit to any specific action related to misinformation revealed by the BBC.

In a statement, a spokesman for an OFGEM said: “We thank the BBC for sharing this information that is related to the same issue that was identified in our investigation.”

He said that the “Global Supply Chain is conducting a full independent, external audit of its global supply chain profiling data to the Drax, which is for the future to satisfy us appropriate procedures and controls” and said: “If any additional evidence If the audit comes after the audit, we will check again.

The current renewable subsidy schemes of Drax ended in 2027 and the government is expected to announce the expansion of Drax subsidy as the BBC discovery of further misconceptions of stability data by Drax.

The government says that it is carefully considering amending the current biomass stability norms and will soon issue an update, but will not confirm whether it will stop wood from the primary forests being used for wooden pellets or No.

A spokesman for the Energy Safety Department and the NET Zero said: “The situation we had inherited for a large -scale biomass generator was unacceptable.

“Ofgem required another audit, and they are working closely with the drax to ensure that no misunderstanding occurs again.”