UK's 2021/22 electricity capacity auction clears at 45 pounds/kW/year

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top-up auction to ensure enough electricity capacity for 2021/22 has cleared at 45 pounds ($62.86) per kilowatt (kW) per year, National Grid said on Tuesday.

National Grid has already secured more than 50 GW of capacity for 2021/22 in an auction held in February 2018, which cleared at 8.40 pounds per kilowatt (kW) per year.

Tuesday's auction was for extra capacity of about 2 GW.

Britain launched its power capacity market in 2014, offering to pay providers for making supplies available at short notice to prevent any supply disruptions.

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Britain usually holds auctions for power capacity about four years in advance of the delivery date and another auction for a smaller amount of capacity around a year before delivery.

About 63% of capacity awarded in the auction went to existing power assets, the auction results showed, including one coal unit at Uniper's Ratcliffe plant in Nottinghamshire.

EDF Energy, owned by French group EDF, said the six units at its West Burton A coal plant in Nottinghamshire did not secure an agreement.

The station is the company's last remaining coal plant in Britain.

"West Burton A has capacity agreements in place for the delivery year ending in September 2021 and we continue to consider all options for the station beyond this date," EDF Energy said in a statement.

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($1 = 0.7159 pounds)

(Reporting by Susanna Twidale, Nina Chestney and Nandakumar D in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman and Sonya Hepinstall)