More than 200 jobs in danger at SSE power station in Cheshire
Over 200 SSE employees working at energy giant SSE’s Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station in Cheshire are in danger of being made redundant after the company has decided to end commercial operations at three of the lossmaking plant’s four turbines, a news report has been able to reveal.
According to SSE, the consultation it is entering into with the station’s 213 employees and other stakeholders including politicians is expected to be completed around the end of March 2016 and, while a final decision has not yet been taken, its expectation is that the three units would close by 1 April 2016 subject to the outcome of the consultation.
The fourth unit is unaffected because it has a contract to provide services to the electricity system for the winter of 2016/17.
According to SSE, the company has taken the "difficult" step due to continuing challenging economic and environmental conditions for coal as the UK moves towards a cleaner mix of electricity generation.
The ageing coal fired station has been incurring substantial losses in recent years and this is expected to continue through to 2020.
Paul Smith, SSE managing director of generation, said that Fiddler’s Ferry power station had made a big contribution to the UK’s energy supplies for over 45 years, but that the economic realities of running the ageing plant at a loss could no longer be ignored.
He added: "We are fully aware of the impact this will have on our colleagues, their families, and the community and our priority is to support staff during the consultation process.
"The reality is the station is ageing, its method of generating electricity is being rendered out of date and it has been and is expected to continue to be loss-making in the years ahead.
"Sustaining for too long lossmaking power stations would undermine SSE’s ability to invest in modern generation plant in the UK.
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