Driven by Our Purpose
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Drax Group plc Drax Group Annual report and accounts 2020 Driven by our purpose Drax Group plc Annual report and accounts 2020 Welcome to Drax Group Our purpose To enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future Our ambition Our ambition is to become carbon negative Read more about Philip Cox how we plan to by 2030. Being carbon negative means CBE, Chair achieve our ambition from our that we will be removing more carbon Chair and CEO on dioxide from the atmosphere than we pages 8 and 10 produce throughout our direct business operations globally – creating a carbon Will Gardiner, negative company CEO Our strategic aims To build a long-term future Read more on page 16 for sustainable biomass By expanding our sustainable bioenergy supply chain and reducing costs we are developing options for long-term biomass operations – renewable generation, negative carbon emissions, system support services and third party supply of biomass to international markets. To be the leading provider Read more on page 36 of power system stability Through a portfolio of flexible and renewable generation, and large industrial and commercial customer supply business, we will provide system support services to allow the power system to utilise intermittent renewable energy accelerating the UK’s decarbonisation en route to 2050. Read more on To give our customers page 38 control of their energy We provide our customers with renewable energy, and the opportunity to control and optimise energy use and cost, helping us support the energy system. Front cover: Foresters in Weyerhaeuser working forest, Mississippi, USA, where more carbon is stored See more online at and more wood inventory is grown each year than is www.drax.com extracted for wood products such as biomass pellets. 2020 highlights Strategic reportStrategic Adjusted revenue(1) Adjusted gross profit(1) Adjusted EBITDA from Percentage of total UK continuing and discontinued renewable electricity operations(1) generated £4,235m £800m £412m 11% (2019 re-presented: £4,457m) (2019 re-presented: £798m) (2019: £410m) (2019: 12%) Governance Total revenue Total gross profit Total operating (loss)/profit Net debt(2) £4,245m £726m £(156)m £776m (2019 re-presented: £4,468m) (2019 re-presented: £677m) (2019 re-presented: £48m) (2019: £841m) Total recordable incident rate Dividend per share Customer meter points Wood pellets produced Financial statements Financial 0.29 17.1p 425k 1.5Mt (2019: 0.22) (2019: 15.9p) (2019: 419k) (2019: 1.4Mt) Contents Shareholder information Shareholder Strategic report Governance Financial statements 159 Financial performance 01 2020 highlights 80 Letter from the Chair 142 Financial statements 173 Operating assets and 02 Market context 84 Board of Directors contents working capital 04 Business model 86 Executive Committee 143 Independent auditor’s 184 Financing and capital 06 ESG highlights 87 Corporate governance report to the members structure 08 Chair’s statement report of Drax Group plc 190 Other assets and liabilities 10 CEO’s review 94 Nomination Committee 151 Financial statements 197 Our people 16 Biomass cost reduction report 154 Consolidated financial 206 Risk management 18 Key performance 98 Audit Committee report statements 226 Reference information indicators 108 Remuneration Committee – Consolidated income 228 Company financial 20 Financial review report statement statements 30 Covid-19 impact on 134 Directors’ report – Consolidated statement – Company balance sheet executive remuneration 138 Directors’ responsibilities of comprehensive – Company statement 32 TCFD disclosures statement income of changes in equity 34 Our Covid-19 response 139 Verification statements – Consolidated balance 230 Notes to the Company 36 System stability sheet financial statements 38 Giving customers control – Consolidated statement Shareholder information of their energy of changes in equity 235 Shareholder information 40 Engaging our stakeholders – Consolidated cash flow 238 Company information 48 Sustainable business statement 239 Glossary 64 Viability statement 66 Principal risks and uncertainties (1) We calculate Adjusted financial performance measures, which are specific to Drax and exclude income statement volatility arising from derivative financial instruments and the impact of items we consider to be exceptional, to provide additional information about the Group’s performance. Adjusted financial performance measures are described more fully on page 153, with a reconciliation to their statutory equivalents in note 2.7 to the consolidated financial statements on page 170. Throughout this document we distinguish between Adjusted financial performance measures and Total financial performance measures, which are calculated in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). On 15 December 2020, the Group announced the sale of its portfolio of CCGT assets to VPI Holdings in a deal worth up to £193 million (see page 21), which subsequently completed on 31 January 2021. As a result of this transaction, the results of the CCGT portfolio for 2019 and 2020 have been classified as discontinued operations in the consolidated financial statements. References to financial performance measures throughout this annual report refer to continuing operations, unless otherwise stated. Further details, and a full reconciliation of continuing, discontinued and total financial performance measures is included in note 5.5 to the consolidated financial statements. (2) We define net debt as borrowings less cash and cash equivalents. A reconciliation of net debt is provided on page 184. Borrowings is defined as per the Group’s balance sheet on page 156 and does not include lease liabilities, pension obligations or other financial liabilities. Drax Group plc Annual report and accounts 2020 1 Market context Why is Drax important in the market? Supporting the nation’s energy needs, tackling climate change and promoting the UK’s socio-economic growth and global leadership ambition through negative emissions Decarbonisation, electrification, Net zero the role of negative carbon emissions and a green recovery from Covid-19 UK and Globally power industry in every scenario to The UK continued to position itself achieve net zero in 2050 and could as a world leader in decarbonisation. help the UK achieve a carbon negative 2020 was widely expected to be a The Prime Minister’s 10-point plan and power system as early as 2030. transformative year: the UK would leave Energy White Paper included low- – and seek a new relationship with – carbon technologies such as offshore The UK Government reaffirmed its the European Union; the re-elected UK wind and carbon capture and storage. commitment to Carbon Capture Usage Government under Boris Johnson would and Storage, safeguarding and building implement a new vision and manifesto, Despite COP26 being postponed on its £800 million budget commitment including the levelling up agenda and by a year, several major economies in a minimum of two clusters. In that COP26; and US elections in November announced, reaffirmed or accelerated context, it announced a call for evidence would offer two very different domestic their net zero commitments. The EU on the role of Greenhouse Gas Removal and international visions. But very few set a new 2030 target for emission technologies (GGRs) including BECCS. predicted why 2020 would become reduction to complement its target This will inform key strategic decisions such a watershed year. The worldwide of carbon neutrality by 2050. South around the development, deliverability pandemic (Covid-19) fundamentally Africa, Japan and South Korea and cost of different GGRs, as well as changed the world, with short- and announced net zero emissions by 2050. the Government’s role in addressing long-term socio-economic consequences China announced a carbon emission market barriers, supporting policies and global impact on health. peak before 2030, with carbon and frameworks. neutrality by 2060. Joe Biden pledged One issue didn’t change, however. to re-join the Paris Climate Agreement, Climate change, and the focus on a Flexibility and Stability proposing to make US electricity Intermittent renewable technologies green economy and renewable power. production carbon-free by 2035 and such as solar and wind grew in 2020, Rather than the global crisis pushing meet net zero by 2050. helping decarbonise the power sector. the green agenda into the long grass, However, this growth increased the general public reconnected with challenges for the stability of the UK’s the environment during lockdowns, Bioenergy carbon capture electricity grid, caused by generation and governments saw the economic and storage (BECCS) outages and low wind levels. National benefits of pushing a green recovery The UK’s Climate Change Committee Grid twice issued an “Electricity Margin with more affordable green technology. highlighted in December 2020 that 53 Notice” – a warning that the margin MtCO2 of BECCS would be needed to meet net zero. National Grid set out in between electricity supply and demand its 2020 Future Energy Scenarios (FES) on the system had tightened to critical report that BECCS was needed in the levels – for the first time since 2016. This underscored the need to increase flexible 2 Drax Group plc Annual report and accounts 2020 See more online at www.drax.com and more details about trends in the electricity sector at www.electricinsights.co.uk Strategic reportStrategic Covid-19 and the Green Bounce Back Energy Drax Impact Covid-19’s global economic