Use of the fossil fuel has significantly declined in recent years, accounting for just 9 per cent of electricity generation last year, down from 23 per cent in 2015, with the closure or conversion of coal plants.

The Government has pledged to phase out coal – the most polluting fossil fuel – from the system by 2025 as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions in the UK.

The electricity grid has been coal-free a number of times since spring last year, but until now the longest continuous period had been 19 hours, first achieved on a weekend last May.

Last night engineers were confidently expecting the grid to reach 10.50pm without needing to call on coal-generated power.

The time would mark 24 hours since West Burton 1 power station went offline on Thursday, the only one of Britain’s nine coal-burning plants that was operating.

The “watershed” moment marks the first day Britain’s electricity system has survived without coal since the world’s first centralised public coal-fired generator opened at Holborn Viaduct in London in 1882.

“The Industrial Revolution started with coal and it’s been the absolute backbone of our power for most of the time since,” said Duncan Burt, head of real-time operations at the National Grid.

“It’s a very proud moment for us to be there on the first day when we weren’t burning coal.”

He said he expected the grid to achieve more coal-free days as the summer progresses towards the period of low demand and high solar power in August, adding that overall demand for electricity was being tempered by more efficient homes and appliances.

“Days like this will become more and more common in the next two or three years, and by the early 2020s burning coal will become increasingly rare,” he said.

Greenpeace UK welcomed yesterday’s expected milestone.

The campaign group’s head of energy, Hannah Martin, said: “A decade ago, a day without coal would have been unimaginable, and in 10 years’ time our energy system will have been radically transformed again.”