The actual electricity production and consumption of the UK is declining [0] The UK is also rapidly deploying renewables, and adding more and more interconnection to mainland Europe.

So as the capacity goes up the consumption goes down (for now). It's completely fair to decommission all coal plants.

I assume the energy consumption will go up at some point, as there's only so much you can save with energy efficiency, an delocalisation, and as we shift primary energy usage onto electricity (what's currently being imported in the form of gas and petrol).

But hopefully by this point the continued growth of production means will cover the increase

0: https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/energy?tab=chart&countr...