Biomass outage at Drax Power Station reduces profit expectations

Drax Power Station has this morning announced that an unplanned outage on the rail unloading facilities for biomass deliveries will result in a drop in its profits.

The outage has led to deliveries being restricted and, in order to optimise available supplies, generation on two biomass units has been reduced.

Drax said that due to the outage, it expected a reduction in EBITDA of £10m in 2017; cutting profit expectations by a third. Its share price slumped 8% as the markets opened and currently stand at 4% below yesterday’s trading.

The biomass two units will then be taken offline for a short period. The Contract for Difference unit and coal operations remain unaffected.

The outage on the rail unloading facilities is currently expected to be completed during January 2018, at which point the biomass units should return to service.