It was the last remaining operational coal-fired power station in the UK, and closed on 30 September 2024, marking the end of coal-powered electricity generation in the United Kingdom.

[7] The station has four units, each consisting of a coal-fired boiler made by Babcock & Wilcox driving a 500 megawatt (MW) Parsons generator set.

[8] Ratcliffe power station was supplied with coal and other bulk commodities by rail via a branch off the adjacent Midland Main Line (MML).

Emissions of sulphur dioxide, which cause acid rain, were greatly reduced in 1993 when a flue gas desulphurisation system using a wet limestone-gypsum process became operational on all of the station's boilers.

[15] On 2 April 2009, E.ON UK announced it had installed a 68-panel solar photovoltaic array at the power station "to help heat and light the admin block, saving an estimated 6.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year".

[15] Ratcliffe power station was the first in the United Kingdom to be fitted with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology, which reduces the emissions of nitrogen oxides through the injection of ammonia directly into the flue gas and passing it over a catalyst.

[21] In 2009, the station was the intended target of protesters when, in the early hours of 14 April, police arrested 114 people at Iona School who were planning to disrupt[22] the running of the power plant.

[23] Twenty of these activists, having admitted that they planned to break into the power station, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass.

When sentencing 18 of these protesters, in December 2010, the judge called them "...decent men and women..." and handed out community orders with only two having to pay reduced expenses.

[24] The charge against the six pleading not guilty was dropped when it was revealed that Mark Kennedy of the Metropolitan Police had been working as an undercover infiltrator for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit and had played a significant role in organising the action.

In April 2024, one unit was placed into "preservation" mode, in advance of plant shutdown,[38] and in June 2024, the last train of coal was delivered for burning at the power station.