EDF to sell two power stations

British Energy buyer EDF today said it would sell two power stations as part of a deal to gain European approval for its £12.5bn takeover.

French utility giant EDF has agreed to sell its gas fired power station at Sutton Bridge in Cambridgeshire and British Energy's coal fired station at Eggborough in East Yorkshire to meet a number of EU hurdles.

The announcements came as the European Commission said it had given conditional approval for EDF's purchase of nuclear power giant British Energy, which produces a sixth of the UK's electricity.

EDF has also committed to sell-in minimum levels of electricity in the British wholesale market, while it will sell off one site potentially suitable for building a new nuclear power plant located at either Heysham in Lancashire or Dungeness in Kent.

And it has said it will end one of the combined group's three grid connection agreements with the National Grid at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

The Eggborough site that has been put up for sale was built between 1962 and 1970 and was acquired by British Energy in 2000.

The station generates 1960 megawatts (MW) of electricity and comprises four 500 MW coal-fired units.

British Energy is predominantly a nuclear power station group, but bought the coal powered site to offer it greater flexibility.

EDF's Sutton Bridge power plant that is to be put up for sale supplies 2% of the electricity for England and Wales.

The site, which was built almost 10 years ago and is powered by natural gas, is managed under a contract by GE.