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Drax Power has been awarded the maximum five stars in the British Safety Council’s Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit, and achieved a near perfect score. The audit, which was carried out by the British Safety Council, is a rigorous evaluation of the power station’s occupational health and safety management system, set against a worldwide benchmark.

Jon Clough, Head of Safety and Environment, Drax Power, explained what was involved:

“During the five day audit, auditors reviewed our safety management systems, interviewed colleagues and took a site tour and inspection to get a comprehensive picture of our health and safety culture.

“We were measured and scored against compliance with our policies and procedures and implementation in the work place. To achieve a five star award, it is necessary to score 92% or more. We scored 97.4%, highlighting how high our standards are, even against a global benchmark.

“This was our first audit, making the achievement all the more impressive.”
Andy Koss, Chief Executive for Drax Power said: “Safety is our number one priority – nothing is more important. Being awarded five stars is recognition that our standards and safety practices are among the very best. We can be proud of this achievement, but safety requires continuous vigilance and the commitment of everyone across the site.”

As five star winners, Drax Power will be eligible to apply for the coveted ‘Sword of Honour’ award which recognises the very best in health and safety management.

About Drax Group plc

Drax’s principal activities are electricity production, electricity sales to business customers, and processing sustainable biomass for use in electricity production. With carbon abatement central to the business strategy, the Group is transforming itself into a predominantly biomass-fuelled power provider through burning sustainable biomass in place of coal and providing the UK with cost effective, low carbon, and reliable renewable power.

The Group owns and operates the largest power station in the UK, typically responsible for supplying some 7-8% of the UK’s electricity. Upstream the Group has a presence in the US focused on developing wood pellet plants for the self-supply of some of its sustainable biomass requirements. At the other end of the supply chain, the Group’s retail arm, Haven Power, serves the electricity needs of a growing number of business customers.

For more information please contact:

Andrew Brown, Drax +44 (0) 1757 612165

Drax Power Limited (part of the Drax Group) is among the winners in the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2015. The Winner of the Electricity Industry Sector award in the prestigious annual scheme run by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) was presented during a ceremony at ExCeL London on June 16.

As the UK’s family safety charity, RoSPA’s mission to save lives and reduce injuries covers all ages and stages of life. In support of this mission, the RoSPA Awards, which date back 59 years, recognise commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention at work. Through the scheme, which is open to businesses and organisations of all types and sizes from across the UK and overseas, judges consider entrants’ overarching occupational health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

David Rawlins, RoSPA’s Awards Manager, said: “The RoSPA Awards encourage improvement in occupational health and safety management. Organisations that gain recognition for their health and safety management systems such as Drax, contribute to raising standards overall and we congratulate them.”

Andy Koss, Chief Executive for Drax Power said:

“Receiving this award is recognition that our standards and safety practices are among the very best. Safety is our number one priority – nothing is more important. We can be proud of this achievement, but safety requires continuous vigilance and the commitment of everyone across the site.”

The majority of RoSPA’s awards are non-competitive, grading achievement at merit, bronze, silver and gold levels. Organisations that maintain high standards in consecutive years can win gold medals, president’s awards and orders of distinction.

Competitive awards are presented in more than 20 industry sectors, and they also recognise excellence in specialist areas, such as the management of occupational road risk (MORR).

The sponsors of the RoSPA Awards 2015 are: headline sponsor – NEBOSH; The RoSPA International Sector Award – airsweb; The MORR Trophy – Allianz; The International Dilmun Environmental Award – GPIC; The Best New Entry Trophy – Safety and Health Expo; The Workforce Involvement in Safety and Health Trophy – Springfields Fuels; and, The MORR Technology Trophy – Tesco Dotcom.

This year, RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards ceremonies are being held in three locations: at ExCeL London on June 16 alongside the Safety and Health Expo 2015; in Birmingham on July 14 and 15  and in Glasgow on September 17, the day after the RoSPA Scotland Occupational Health and Safety Congress.

See www.rospa.com/awards/ for more information about the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards.

END

Notes

Drax’s principal activities are electricity production, electricity sales to business customers, and processing sustainable biomass for use in electricity production. With carbon abatement central to the business strategy, the Group is transforming itself into a predominantly biomass-fuelled power provider through burning sustainable biomass in place of coal and providing the UK with cost effective, low carbon, and reliable renewable power.

The Group owns and operates the largest power station in the UK, typically responsible for supplying some 7-8% of the UK’s electricity. Upstream the Group has a presence in the US focused on developing wood pellet plants for the self-supply of some of its sustainable biomass requirements. At the other end of the supply chain, the Group’s retail arm, Haven Power, serves the electricity needs of a growing number of business customers.

Energy will be generated from sustainable, affordable biomass. Haven Power, the specialist electricity supplier to UK businesses and part of Drax Group plc, has signed a deal with Thames Water to supply their electricity requirements in a deal worth more than £500m over five years. There is an option for two further five-year renewals which could increase the overall value of the contract to more than £1.5bn over 15 years.

Haven Power is the UK’s largest independent electricity supplier to businesses and sources its power from the Drax power plant in Selby, Yorkshire, which, as a result of its world leading biomass transformation, is now the UK’s single largest supplier of renewable energy. The deal will enable Thames Water, which already sources about 20% of its electricity through self-generated renewables such as solar, wind, hydro and biogas, to meet all of its electricity needs from renewables.

Drax Group Chief Executive, Dorothy Thompson, said:

“I’m delighted that Drax and Haven will play such an important part in helping to deliver Thames ‘renewable objectives.  As the UK looks to decarbonise in an affordable and pragmatic way, it is pioneering companies like Thames that are leading the way.”

Thames Water energy manager Angus Berry said:

“Our energy and carbon strategy centres around reducing costs for customers and minimising our impact on the environment. This deal with Haven puts downward pressure on bills and means we will now be using 100% renewable electricity. We look forward to growing our relationship with Haven to exploit further opportunities to minimise energy costs and emissions, as well as continuing to work towards our ambitious target of self-generating 30% of our own electricity by 2020.”

Drax is undergoing a major transformation programme to convert its 4GW power station – which supplies around 8% of the UK’s power – from coal to sustainable biomass. Two out of six units have now been converted and plans are advanced to modify a third unit to high-biomass later this year. The estimated 12 million tonnes of carbon saved once three units are fully converted is equivalent to taking 10% of the UK’s total vehicle fleet off the roads and makes Drax the single largest decarbonisation project currently underway in Europe.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Thames Water

 Thames Water, which serves London and the Thames Valley, is Britain’s biggest water and sewerage company.

Top-quality drinking water: We supply more than a tonne a week of water on average to each of our 9m drinking water customers. That’s 2,600m litres a day.

Recycling water back to the environment: We also recycle safely back to the environment 15m people’s wastewater. That’s 4,200m litres of sewage a day – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Our region: Our service area stretches from eastern fringes of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in the west, through to the western edges of Essex and Kent in the east.

For more information please visit https://www.thameswater.co.uk/

About Drax Group plc

Drax’s principal activities are electricity production, electricity sales to business customers, and processing sustainable biomass for use in electricity production. With carbon abatement central to the business strategy, the Group is transforming itself into a predominantly biomass-fuelled power provider through burning sustainable biomass in place of coal and providing the UK with cost effective, low carbon, and reliable renewable power.

The Group owns and operates the largest power station in the UK, typically responsible for supplying some 7-8% of the UK’s electricity. Upstream the Group has a presence in the US focused on developing wood pellet plants for the self-supply of some of its sustainable biomass requirements. At the other end of the supply chain, the Group’s retail arm, Haven Power, serves the electricity needs of a growing number of business customers.

For more information please contact:

 Stuart White, Thames Water

+44 (0) 203 577 4364. Or [email protected]

Andrew Brown, Drax

+44 (0) 7721513777 or [email protected]

Record numbers turned up to support the fifth annual Easter Eggstravaganza at Drax Nature Reserve and Skylark Centre on Easter Sunday.

Over 1,200 children and parents joined the giant woodland egg hunt – with help from a life-sized Easter Bunny and Rooster – and enjoyed a range of fun-filled activities while raising money for Selby Hands of Hope.

The event, organised by Drax, included an arts and crafts workshop with flower-making and face painting. Rare breed sheep and goats and an animal petting area also provided education and entertainment for all.

Drax community campaign coordinator Ann Gray was there to join in the fun.

She said: “It’s great to see the Drax Easter Eggstravaganza becoming such a well-supported annual event on the community calendar. Everyone was having a brilliant time and together we raised over £1,600 for local charity Selby Hands of Hope which will go to support a variety of projects in the area.”

Download press release PDF:

Family fun at Easter Eggstravaganza

For more information, please contact:

Ann Gray, Drax

01757 612933

Richard Harrison/Sarah Harrison, Imagen PR

01943 468778