A POWER station near Selby is back up for sale - only two years after it was bought by an American company.

The Evening Press can reveal that Ferrybridge C, one of the UK's largest coal-fired stations, is now on the market at around £600 million.

Owners Edison Mission Energy - which bought the coal-fired plant from PowerGen in July 1999 - confirmed today that falling profits had prompted the shock sale.

The company's public affairs director John Green said: "We basically got our judgement of the market wrong when we bought Ferrybridge, and it has given us financing problems.

"Electricity generation is a fiercely competitive market - much tougher than we thought when we bought the station.

"There has been some strong pressure from the regulator and there are now a lot more players in the market after National Power and PowerGen sold off their stations."

Mr Green added: "We have received a number of bids from potential buyers, and expect to know where we are going on that very shortly." In February last year, Edison Mission announced it was investing £100 million in new anti-acid rain equipment at Ferrybridge, one of the three Aire Valley stations along with Drax and Eggborough.

The anti-pollution investment was hailed by Selby District Council chiefs as a major boost for the local environment.

But Mr Green said today that the plans to fit the flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) filters were now "on hold".

He added: "Electricity prices have been very low and that has made us look very hard at the FGD investment.

"There's no threat to jobs. If we don't sell the station, we will continue to run it."

The company - whose only other UK coal-fired plant, Fidlers Ferry, near Widnes, is also up for sale - plans to invest in an off-shore wind farm in North Wales.

Based in California, Edison Mission is one of the world's largest independent generators.

Selby Council planning committee chairman, Coun Jack Crawford, said today he was disappointed the station had been put back on the market so quickly.

He said: "There's now a question mark over Ferrybridge C's long-term future, which is not good news for jobs or the environment."

Updated: 13:47 Tuesday, August 28, 2001