Britain will be down to its last coal power plant next winter as talks to keep two more sites going over the upcoming cold season ended without agreement.

National Grid’s Electricity System Operator (ESO) said that discussions with Drax and EDF had concluded with both companies deciding to push ahead with the closure plans.

The companies’ plants had been slated for closure ahead of last year, but agreed to stay open a little longer due to the international energy squeeze sparked as Russia ramped up its long-running war against Ukraine in February 2022.

But they were barely needed during the winter, and will now close down ahead of next winter.

The ESO said that Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal plant would keep operating one unit during the coming winter.

“At the request of Government in March 2023, the ESO has undertaken discussions with the operators of two winter 2022/23 contingency coal plants to establish whether these arrangements could be extended for a further winter,” the ESO said.

“These discussions have now concluded. Both operators have confirmed that they will not be able to make their coal units available for a further winter and have begun the decommissioning process.”

Once a mainstay of British electricity production, coal has become increasingly less important over recent years as it was replaced by renewable energy and cleaner-burning gas.

In 2017, Britain went for 24 hours without burning coal for electricity for the first time since the 1880s. By 2020 it reached a record 68 consecutive days without burning coal.