British Gas owner seeks to extend nuclear plants’ lifespans into 2030s

Matt Oliver

Thu, February 19, 2026 at 8:47 PM GMT+9 4 min read

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Heysham Two is currently due to shut in 2030 - Global Warming Images / Alamy Stock Photo

British Gas owner Centrica is planning to keep its oldest nuclear plants running into the 2030s to help strengthen the UK’s energy supplies.

The FTSE 100 giant said on Thursday that it supported plans to extend the lifespan of its fleet of 1980s power stations and was “increasingly confident” that such a move would be granted.

The company also revealed that profits almost halved from £1.55bn to £814m last year as gas and power prices tumbled and bosses bet on a major investment in the future Sizewell C nuclear plant. It has pledged to commit up to £600m on the project by the end of 2028.

Shares in Centrica plunged by more than 9pc following the update, wiping more than £800m off its market value.

Along with France’s EDF, the energy giant is a shareholder in all five of Britain’s remaining nuclear sites.

Of these, four advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) sites are currently scheduled to shut between 2028 and 2030 – Hartlepool, Heysham One, Heysham Two and Torness – while the fifth plant, Sizewell B, is expected to be extended into the 2050s.

However, the Government warned last month that the AGR closures risked leaving “a dangerous gap in Britain’s low-carbon energy supply” because they would happen before new plants came online. It said it supported safely extending them if possible.

Chris O’Shea, the chief executive of Centrica, said on Thursday that Hartlepool and Heysham One were currently due to shut in 2028 while Torness and Heysham Two were due to shut by 2030.

However, he added: “We are increasingly confident that we will see lifetime extensions so that all of those plants can go into the early 2030s.

“Probably you will see a number of one or two-year extensions there.”

Extensions for Hartlepool and Heysham One could be announced later this year, he said.

EDF confirmed last month it had “an ambition to generate low carbon electricity from all four generating AGR stations for as long as it is safe and commercially viable to do so”.

The French company added: “Now the stations are in the latter stages of their generating lives, further extensions will not be for long.

“We will keep their lifetimes under review to assess whether further life extensions can be achieved.”

EDF said their lifespans will ultimately depend on safety inspections of their graphite cores.

Over time, the cores develop cracks that can prevent the reactor’s control rods from being operated properly. EDF has previously stressed that safety rules mean it would have to decommission the plant long before enough of the rods became inoperable.

Any extension would have to be supported by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, an independent quango.

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The plant closures would mean Britain’s nuclear power output would tumble to between just three to four gigawatts by 2030, down from six gigawatts today and a peak of 12.7 gigawatts in the mid-1990s.

Two new power plants, Hinkley Point C in Somerset and Sizewell C in Suffolk, are under construction but won’t come online until the early 2030s and late 2030s, respectively.

One of Hinkley Point C’s ‘reactor pressure vessels’ was installed in 2024. The plant is expected to be operational between 2029 and 2031

Sir Keir Starmer said earlier this year that the Government wanted to “avoid a ‘nuclear gap’ by enabling existing stations to continue running where demonstrably safe, such as through the potential 20-year lifetime extension of Sizewell B and by getting Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C online as soon as possible”.

Centrica blamed its drop in profits on “challenging” market conditions but pointed to “bold investments” in projects such as Sizewell C that would bring future revenues.

European gas prices peaked at about €56 (£49) per megawatt hour in 2025 before tumbling by about 50pc through the rest of the year.

Centrica said the annual loss also included a reappraisal of energy trading contracts that cost £700m, a £500m write-down on “late-life” gas fields and costs related to investment in its nuclear portfolio.

The company said it was increasing the dividend by 22pc but was pausing its share buyback programme.

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