ScottishPower Wins Approval for Kent Gas-Fired Power Plant

---

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Permission to build a 1,000-megawatt (MW), gas-fired power plant in Kent, in southeast England, has been granted government approval. Charles Hendry, the U.K.'s Energy Minister, has approved the application by ScottishPower (Glasgow, Scotland) to build the combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant near Hoo St. Werburgh in Kent, adjacent to the existing 800-MW Damhead Creek gas-fired plant. The new plant, Damhead Creek 2, will be capable of generating enough electricity for up to 1.5 million homes.

The project is expected to cost 579 million euros ($793 million). ScottishPower first revealed its plans for the plant in March 2009. For related news, see March 16, 2009, article - Scottish Power to Develop 1,000-Megawatt Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine Plant in Kent.

"This power plant will play a vital role in providing secure electricity supplies for the South East, as well as creating jobs in the region," Hendry said. "It will be one of the most efficient power plants in the world, and be built carbon capture ready, which means that eventually CO2 produced by the plant could be captured and transported for storage under the North Sea. There is also potential, in the future, to use the heat created by the plant to supply the local area."

"We are pleased to have received consent from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) for a new, 1,000-MW, combined-cycle gas turbine power station next to our existing Damhead Creek plant, near Hoo in Medway," said Roger Seshan, Commercial Development Director at ScottishPower. "This is a major achievement and an important milestone for the proposed project. Our immediate plans will see further development work carried out at the site in the coming months. This will fully establish our plans for the site and determine the future timetable for the project."

ScottishPower is already the front runner to win a large share of the government's 10.5 billion-euro ($14.4 billion) carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration programme, after rival energy giant E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany) scrapped its CCS development efforts at the Kingsnorth coal-fired plant in Kent. For related news, see October 25, 2010, article - E.ON Drops U.K. Carbon Capture Project. ScottishPower is promoting its working CCS pilot at the Longannet coal-fired plant in Fife, east Scotland.

The Damhead Creek 2 plant also could come in for a windfall, after the government opened up its CCS competition to gas-fired plants at the end of last year. The government has committed to four CCS projects in all, but now some of those can be gas-fired as well as coal-fired. For additional information, see November 15, 2010, article - U.K. Opens Carbon Capture Funding to Gas-Fired Plants.

View Plant Profile - 1034061
View Project Report - 78000524

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.