Fife Power Station at Cardenden bought by Scottish and Southern Energy seven years ago is to close at the end of March with the loss of 21 jobs.
Workers have been told efforts will be made to redeploy them elsewhere, but there is scepticism about the practicality of moving settled families, with children attending local schools.
“They are talking about trying to redeploy people within the company but there are not many opportunities there,” said an employee of SSE. “They will be offered way down in the south of England or way up in the north of Scotland. There’s not a lot about Fife.”
Workers have been issued with letters confirming the plant is to “cease operations on March 31.” In addition, the letters inform workers they are entering a formal consultation period, giving them the choice of redeployment or severance pay on the basis of the Government’s basic minimum.
An SSE spokeswoman confirmed the station was to close at the end of March.
“There has been a consultation into the commercial operations at Fife Power Station,” she said. “It has been a challenging market for small, gas-fired generation. We are consulting with staff at the power station and we have got a strong focus on looking at staff re-training or redeploying.”
Asked if redundant workers would be offered far-flung posts, she said, “What I would say is every step will be taken by SSE, through the consultation programme, to focus on retraining or redeploying staff, but I am not in a position to say exactly where that will be but SSE has got staff interests very much in their focus and will do everything we can to redeploy them.”