Rugeley Power Station closure: Workers' fate sealed as death knell comes early
Time was already running out for Rugeley Power Station, but the end has come quicker than anyone expected.
Just three months ago the Government announced the death knell for any coal-fired power station which, like Rugeley, did not have carbon capture technology to clean up their emissions.
But, with a closure deadline of 2025, local people and the workforce thought they would have up to a decade.
Instead, Rugeley B's owner, French power generator Engie, says market conditions are so bad they are closing the station by early summer this year, giving it just three or four more months of life.
Around 150 workers will lose their jobs.
David Alcock, chief executive of Engie's energy infrastructure division in the UK, said: "It is with deep regret that we have had to make this decision at Rugeley.
"Our priority now is to support the employees and help them through this period. We implemented a number of changes at Rugeley a year ago in order to help maintain operations at the site but a combination of falling prices and the impact of various market changes has now made this unviable."
Cannock Chase MP Amanda Milling held urgent talks with energy secretary Amber Rudd on the day of the closure.
As well as calling for support for the workers and in redeveloping the site, she wants the Government to explore the feasibility of building a replacement gas power station on the site.
She has also asked to visit the power station later this week, to meet with employees and management, and also asked to be kept updated during the course of the Engie consultation with staff over job losses.
Ms Milling said: "Rugeley's power stations have been a defining landmark in the town and surrounding area since the 1950s. They were there long before I was born and I know from growing up locally they have always dominated the skyline of much of South Staffordshire.
"It is also significant because Rugeley B power station has been our last connection to our historic mining heritage, with much of the locally-mined coal going to the site."
The future of the site is unknown at this point but I hope that we can create new jobs with major industry in our town."
The station is known locally as Rugeley B and has been in operation since 1970. Rugeley A station, built on the same site back in the 1950s, was decommissioned in 1996.
Two years ago the power station's owner scrapped plans to convert Rugeley to a biomass energy generator. That scheme would have given the station – Rugeley's biggest employer after the vast Amazon warehouse next door – a long-term future. But it was not to be.
B station has continued to dominate the skyline. It still provides power for much of the region but the workforce has now dwindled to around 150.
Their fate, and that of the power station, has now been sealed.
