Drax says trading in line with expectations

Power generator Drax said trading conditions remained in line with expectations since interim results reported on July 19.

In a trading update, the company said a major planned outage on its contract for difference unit was completed in November and it had now returned to service.

Drax added that both biomass and coal operations were currently performing well, while retail operations remained in line with expectations, with the integration of Opus Energy progressing well and continued improvement in profitability at Haven Power.

“At the Morehouse and Amite pellet plants, the installation of a further 150K tonnes of capacity - allowing access to incrementally cheaper local wood residues - as part of the previously announced plans to optimise operations, is now complete,” Drax said

'The third pellet plant at LaSalle began commissioning in November 2017, with pellets now being produced and an increase in production scheduled through 2018.

“Taking these factors into account and based on good operational availability for the remainder of the year, our expectations remain unchanged.”