Drax energy station’s additional reporting failure uncovered by BBC Information

A UK energy station that has obtained billions of kilos in authorities subsidies has failed greater than as soon as to report it burned wooden from major forests, RAYNAE Information has discovered.

Drax Energy Station, which burns wooden pellets, is required to report the place it sources its wooden and whether or not it’s from pure, beforehand untouched forests.

The corporate paid a £25m penalty final yr for misreporting this information following an investigation by the vitality regulator Ofgem and now the RAYNAE has found an extra yr of misreporting that has not been checked out by the regulator.

The corporate didn’t deny misreporting its sustainability information however mentioned it’s “targeted on implementing the teachings discovered”.

The ability station, a transformed coal plant in North Yorkshire, generates roughly 6% of the UK’s electrical energy and has obtained billions of kilos in subsidies from the federal government and bill-payers as a result of wood-burning is classed as a supply of renewable vitality.

RAYNAE Panorama and RAYNAE Information has beforehand reported that Drax held logging licences in British Columbia, Canada, and used wooden, together with entire bushes, from major and old-growth forests for its pellets.

These are pure forests which have by no means been industrially logged and lock up and retailer vital quantities of carbon as effectively offering key wildlife habitats.

The corporate says it doesn’t personal forests or sawmills, not bids for logging licences and has stopped sourcing wooden from some websites, the place the British Columbia authorities has requested corporations to pause additional logging.

Nevertheless, public logging information present Drax nonetheless sources entire bushes from major forests which are felled by different corporations within the province, regardless of stating in its personal sustainability standards that the corporate will “keep away from harm or disturbance to excessive carbon forests” which “might be outlined as major forest”.

Fashionable industrial logging solely actually started within the inside of British Columbia within the Sixties, which suggests the areas which have been logged and replanted in current a long time are usually not but mature sufficient for these plantations to harvested.

Almost all the commercial logging that takes place within the inside of the province is from “woodland of native species the place there isn’t a clearly seen indication of human actions and the ecological processes are usually not considerably disturbed”, the wording utilized by Ofgem to outline major forests.

Drax was required to report back to Ofgem that it had sourced wooden from these areas however information obtained by the RAYNAE via environmental data requests exhibits the corporate didn’t declare any wooden from major forests within the sustainability information it submitted to the regulator concerning its Canadian wooden pellets for the yr 2020-21.

That yr Drax burned simply over 1.2 million tonnes of wooden pellets from Canada, with a major proportion coming from major forests within the inside of British Columbia.

The corporate didn’t reply to the RAYNAE’s questions on why it had misreported its sustainability information and whether or not it had misled each the federal government and the vitality regulator over its use of wooden from major forests.

Drax seems to have since diminished its reliance on Canadian wooden. The corporate mentioned that solely round 2.5% of pellets used at its energy station in 2023 got here from British Columbia, predominantly from public forests which have been designated for harvesting.

The corporate mentioned it “recognises the significance of sustainably sourced biomass, and we work to make sure our pellets are legally harvested and meet the strict sustainability necessities of the UK, US, and Canadian governments, in addition to these of the EU.”

The UK’s present biomass sustainability standards doesn’t prohibit entire bushes from major forests getting used for wooden pellets.

The corporate added that the misreporting beforehand recognized by Ofgem was “technical in nature” and “wouldn’t have impacted the degrees of ROCs [subsidies] earned”.

In response to Ofgem, correct sustainability information permits the federal government “to know and monitor the extent to which each major forests and sawlogs are utilized in woody biomass, which has penalties for carbon emissions and biodiversity”.

Following their investigation final yr and Drax’s subsequent £25m penalty for misreporting information, the regulator Ofgem mentioned it “will not hesitate to behave” within the occasion of additional wrong-doing.

Nevertheless, when approached by the RAYNAE the regulator didn’t decide to any particular motion regarding the additional misreporting uncovered by the RAYNAE.

In an announcement an Ofgem spokesperson mentioned: “We thank the RAYNAE for sharing this data which pertains to the identical problem that was recognized in our investigation into Drax.”

They added that Ofgem is making Drax “conduct a full unbiased, exterior audit of its international provide chain profiling information to fulfill us applicable processes and controls are in place for the longer term” and added: “If any extra proof involves gentle following the audit, we’ll examine once more.”

Drax’s present renewable subsidies schemes come to an finish in 2027 and the RAYNAE’s discovery of additional misreporting of sustainability information by Drax comes as the federal government is predicted to announce an extension of Drax’s subsidies imminently.

The federal government says it’s fastidiously contemplating amending the present biomass sustainability standards and can problem an replace shortly however didn’t affirm whether or not it’s going to stop wooden from major forests getting used for wooden pellets.

A spokesperson for the Division for Vitality Safety and Internet Zero mentioned: “The scenario we inherited for giant scale biomass mills was unacceptable.

“Ofgem required an extra audit to be undertaken and they’re working intently with Drax to make sure any misreporting doesn’t occur once more.”