From JOHN BAKER
Tam Dalyell’s Thistle Diary piece, ‘Acid reigns over Europe’, suggests
that National Power is doing nothing about acid rain (Forum, 17 August).
Let me put the record straight.
In fact, we are undertaking a range of actions to reduce emissions from
our power stations. We are investing £700 million in the world’s
largest single atmospheric cleanup project at our Drax station to reduce
sulphur dioxide emissions. We are fitting special burners to our seven major
coal-fired plants to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. We are investing in
new port facilities so that we can substitute low cost, low sulphur coals
for high sulphur coals. And we are investing in combined cycle gas turbine
(CCGT) plants which are ‘environmentally preferable’ on all emission counts.
Tam Dalyell suggests that because we are moving from our Leatherhead
laboratory we are in some way neglecting our duty. He omits to say, however,
that we are opening a new research centre at Swindon. The change is being
made because the old CEGB was an £11 billion a year turnover organisation.
Our much more modestly sized company cannot afford Leatherhead. But we can
afford a more modest research establishment and we are siting it at Swindon
where the rest of our thinking power is based. This will ensure our research
people will be alongside the planners and engineers instead of remote as
at present.
Finally, he implies that National Power must go on spending on acid
rain research at the same rate as in the past, as if no progress has been
made. The fact is that many of the policy issues to which the research was
addressed are now resolved, and research has been overtaken by action. It
has also been overtaken by a major shift in technical strategy from the
CEGB’s planned expansion of large coal-fired stations to one based on new
CCGT plant with guaranteed performance.
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John Baker Chief Executive National Power London
