LONDON (Reuters) - The British unit of German utility RWE on Wednesday submitted applications for permits to allow its Tilbury coal-fired power plant, which it has turned into a biomass station, run beyond a closure date set by EU environmental law.
The Tilbury plant in Essex east of London is expected to race through operating hours allocated under the EU's Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) by the end of 2013 at the latest, but re-licensing the station as a biomass plant would extend its lifetime by at least 10 years.
"With the viewpoint that we are going to run out (of allocated hours), it's important that we start making those planning (applications) now so that the county council and the Environment Agency can determine them and then we can look at that plant moving forward post closure under LCPD," a spokeswoman for RWE npower said.
