Drax, Britain’s largest coal-fired electricity generator, announced today that its finance director, Gordon Boyd, has resigned.

The news came as the group posted a 16 per cent fall in last year's pre-tax profit to £439 million.

This result was blamed on lower electricity usage because of a warm start to 2007 and rising coal prices, up 90 per cent over the year.

Mr Boyd, who joined the company in January 2005, said: "I have thought long and hard about this decision and I am convinced that it is the right time for me to move on and seek fresh challenges."

He will step down in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, Drax has hit out at government plans to force energy companies to subsidise bills for poorer households and EU proposals to extend its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

In January, Ofgem, the UK's energy regulator, said power companies should use some of the £9 billion they made as a result of irregularities in the ETS to help people struggling to pay their bills.

Heads of the companies have now been asked to discuss fuel poverty, with an announcement expected in next week's Budget.

"A surprise or shock tax is very destabilising for the industry when making long-term investments," Dorothy Thompson, the company's chief executive, told Reuters.

Drax also said that new EU proposals to extend the ETS would "likely prove a precipitous move".

In January, the EU outlined proposals for the third phase of the scheme covering 2013 to 2020, which would result in all carbon allowances being auctioned, and spiralling permit prices.

Drax currently gets over half of its carbon allowances for free but analysts have speculated that if the firm was made to pay for all its allowances, at what is expected to be double the current price, it could force Drax to reduce power generation and that it could be taken over by a large utilities firm.

Shares in the company traded down 4.1 per cent, or 24p, at 532p.

The group today declared a final dividend of 9.9p and a special dividend of 7.8p.

In December, Drax warned that its dividend would be 9.9p, far below expectations of 40p, as its cash position had fallen. This was blamed on adverse credit conditions forcing the company to delay its debt refinancing.

|However, Ms Thompson said: "We believe developments in the UK electricity market will present opportunities for Drax to exploit its strategic position as a key generator in the market and to use its competencies in the areas of trading and operations."

It is installing new turbines in order to make its 4,000-megawatt power plant more efficient and is upgrading the plant so that up to 10 per cent of its fuel can be provided by organic matter and crops.

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