The UK's biomass-fired generation increased on the month and year in July as Covid-19 lockdown measures eased, resulting in extra demand on the power grid.

Biomass-fired generation rose by 6.5pc to 1.79TWh in July, from 1.68TWh in June, data from UK generator Drax and Imperial College London show. Similarly, biomass generation rose by 24.3pc on the year from 1.44TWh in July 2019.

Biomass-fired capacity edged up to a daily average of 2.40GW in July, up from 2.33GW in June and an increase of 23.7pc year on year.

Drax saw 19 days off line across its three 645MW biomass base-load units at its plant at Selby in North Yorkshire in July, and a further three days of outage at its 645MW peak-load biomass-fired unit 4. Comparatively, there were 28 outage days at the three base-load units in July 2019, and eight days at its unit 4.

Czech-Slovak utility EPH's 396MW Lynemouth plant in northeast England continued to ramp up, with average availability at 86.49pc in July, up from 85.07pc in June and 58.14pc in July 2019.

UK power demand fell in the second quarter of the year after the government implemented Covid-19 lockdown measures on 23 March. Grid demand showed signs of a recovery in June, with the power mix averaging 26.84GW and generating 19.32TWh of electricity. Comparatively, grid demand averaged 27.87GW and generated 20.74TWh of electricity in July. However, UK grid demand remained 5.8pc lower than the 22.01TWh of electricity generated in July 2019.

The biomass share of the UK grid dipped to average 8.42pc in July, down from 8.5pc in June. But its share of the power mix was up from 6.48pc in July 2019.

The UK recorded no coal-fired generation in July 2020, compared to 0.02TWh of electricity produced in July last year. Coal-fired generation in the UK produced no electricity on 9 April-17 June 2020. The UK brought forward in February the phase-out of coal-fired power in Great Britain to October 2024 from 2025.

Gas held on to its position as the largest contributor to the UK grid in July, as generation rose by 14.2pc on the month. Gas-fired generation produced 8.27TWh in July, comprising 38.77pc of the power mix, while wind generation marginally increased by 0.5pc on the month to produce 4.24TWh — 20.46pc of the power mix.