Drax’s profits surge as high energy prices bolster power plant operator’s earnings
Power plant operator Drax Group today said its pre-tax profits for the first half of 2022 were almost four times higher than its pre-tax profits for the same period in 2021, after high electricity prices bolstered the Yorkshire firm’s business.
The North Yorkshire company – that operates the coal and biomass fired Draw Power Station near Selby – saw its first half profits before tax surge from £52m in H1 2021 to £200m in H1 2022, after the war in Ukraine and the impacts of Covid caused global energy prices to surge.
Higher prices and strong operational performance from Drax’s biomass and hydro generation bolstered the firm’s revenues, as income from its power generation business surged 24 per cent compared to the first half of 2021.
The above average performance saw Drax’s power generation business supply five per cent of the UK’s electricity between April 2021 and April 2022, and 11 per cent of the UK’s renewable electricity over the same period.
Drax’s North American wood pellets production business, which in the first six months of 2022 saw the firm produce two million tonnes of the bio fuel from its pellet mills in the US and Canada, also saw its revenues increase 13 per cent, as the firm produced and sold more pellets.