GEC Alsthom has won a pounds 140m order to construct a 380 megawatt combined cycle power plant near Manchester for the US-owned group AES Partington.In the last week the go-ahead has been announced for 2,700MW of gas-fired capacity. This will reduce demand for coal by nearly 5 million tonnes a year - equivalent to the output of three large collieries.A fortnight ago PowerGen announced the closure of a 400MW unit at Ferrybridge C power station in Yorkshire, reducing the market for coal by a further 1 million tonnes a year.The delegation from the Confederation of UK Coal Producers told Downing Street that a fundamental review was now needed of the UK electricity generating market, arguing that it was increasingly biased against coal. Industry executives believe that before being allowed to close coal-fired stations, the three big fossil fuel generators should be required to offer it to other parties."If there is coal burning capacity that is coming off the system that has useful life, then it makes sense to offer it to someone else to operate. It would also help stimulate competition," said one executive.Later, Mr Budge said the 90 minute meeting with Geoff Norris, who advises the Prime Minister on energy, as "useful" but refused to be drawn further.The plea for support coincided with news that another gas-fired station is to be built. A delegation to Downing Street, led by RJB's chief executive Richard Budge, urged officials to impose a temporary ban on approvals for further gas-fired stations and provide financial support for a new generation of environmentally friendly clean coal power stations.However, the industry is also drawing up plans to save redundant coal- fired generating capacity from being mothballed and dismantled.

Michael Harrison reports on the latest attempts to provide a lifeline for the country's coalfields. The Government was warned yesterday that eight pits and up to 4,000 jobs could disappear unless it acted to support the coal industry. However, with analysts saying Reed would need to raise pounds 1bn from the sale just to achieve earnings neutrality, perhaps we should not be holding our breath.. Britain's coal industry, led by the biggest producer RJB Mining, has told the Government it should be allowed to take over and operate coal-fired power stations that are under threat of closure. Reed's surprise move has increased the pressure on other players, so more deals seem inevitable. It may also force the long-expected sale by Reed of its IPC consumer magazines division. Judging by Reed's share price yesterday - up 18 per cent - the City generally buys the idea of a powerful combination increasingly able to put the squeeze on smaller rivals. Analysts are also impressed by the willingness of Wolters Kluwer to take on Reed so soon after the recent circulation-overstatement fiasco at Reed's travel subsidiary.Business and professional information is a market that is rapidly consolidating - witness the recent Maid deal with Knight-Ridder.

The enlarged group keeps headquarters in both Britain and Holland and just about everyone keeps there jobs in this one - in the boardroom at any rate.If no significant cost cuts, why do it? The intention is to build up dominant content and then push it through a variety of formats such as print, CD-Roms and the Lexis-Nexis database. The tongue-twistingly named Elsevier Wolters Kluwer says the merger will yield pounds 50m of savings a year after year three - which is just over 1 per cent of the combined group's cost base That's not much. Publishers of this kind of material in the printed, and increasingly on-line, form can make a killing. Reed Elsevier is already a powerful player in these markets. Its professional and scientific divisions, which include the Tolley and Butterworth imprints, have margins to die for and yesterday's near-pounds 20bn tie-up with Wolters Kluwer of Holland will make the enlarged group an even more dominant force. For once it seems true that here is a deal that is genuinely not about cost-cutting.