North Yorkshire power station operator Drax has agreed to pay £25m after a probe by energy industry regulator Ofgem found that the company had failed to properly report data on the types of wood it uses for its biomass pellets.
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00:00Hello, I'm Michael Crosland, business reporter with the Yorkshire Post, here with the news
00:04this morning that North Yorkshire power station operator Drax has agreed to pay £25 million
00:10after a probe by energy industry regulator Ofgem found that the company had failed to
00:16properly report data on the types of wood it uses for its biomass pellets. The payment
00:23comes as Ofgem closes its investigation into Drax, which was first launched in May of last
00:29year. Ofgem said that the investigation had found that Drax had an absence of adequate
00:34data governance and controls in place and that this had contributed to the company misreporting
00:40data to Ofgem for the compliance period of April 1st 2021 to March 31st 2022. The investigation
00:50found no evidence that Drax had been issued renewable energy certificates incorrectly
00:55or that the company deliberately misreported data. The sustainability of the wood used
01:01to create Drax's biomass pellets was previously brought into question by a BBC Panorama investigation.
01:08Drax maintains, however, that its wood pellets are sustainably harvested. Ofgem said that
01:14its investigation found no evidence that Drax does not meet the government's rule that a
01:20minimum of 70% of its biomass must come from sustainable sources in order for it to receive
01:27government funding. Drax CEO Will Gardiner said that the company remains confident in
01:33the systems it has in place to demonstrate its sustainability, adding that the period
01:38had been a challenging time in part due to Covid-19. The company has, however, accepted
01:45the findings of Ofgem. That's all we have for the time being. I'm Michael Crossland
01:50reporting for the Yorkshire Post.