Scottish and Southern Energy To Fire Up Marchwood CCGT Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Scottish and Southern Energy plc (LSE:SSE) (Perth, Scotland) has announced that work on the new 840-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station at Marchwood, near Southampton, has been completed.

The plant, which is 50% owned by ESB International (ESBI), the subsidiary of Ireland's state-owned Electricity Supply Board (ESB) (Dublin), is the first new CCGT plant to be built in the U.K. in the last five years. SSE has invested about £200 million (US $324 million) in the plant, and the total build cost is estimated to be £380 million (US $619.44 million). The plant is expected to be able to generate enough power for approximately 1 million homes.

The plant is available for full commercial operation, and all of the power is contracted to SSE. With a thermal efficiency in excess of 58%, the Marchwood plant will be one of the most efficient operating in the U.K. It takes SSE's electricity generation portfolio, including its share of joint ventures, to more than over 11,500MW.

"Ensuring that Marchwood becomes operational in the next few weeks is the most immediate priority in our programme of projects and investments," said SSE's chief executive, Ian Marchant in a recent interview. "The site was selected primarily because of its previous use. The building has been designed to minimise the visual impact on its surroundings. Physically the plant comprises two elements, the main power station buildings and two stacks. Particular attention has been paid to the visual appearance of all buildings and discreet colour schemes have been chosen to blend in with the surroundings."

Marchwood is the first of a number of large gas-fired projects expected to be brought online in the U.K. in the coming years, as energy companies scramble to replace ageing nuclear and coal-fired plants.

RWE npower (OTC:RWNEF), a division of RWE Power AG (Essen, Germany), is building a state-of-the-art 1,650-MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) at Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire. The £600 million (US $974 million) project is on a brownfield site that previously had two coal-fired plants and is expected to be commissioned in the middle of next year. RWE is also building the U.K.'s largest CCGT with Alstom SA (EPA:ALO) (Levallois-Perret, France), the 2,000-MW gas-fired CCGT, on the site of a former oil-powered power station at Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Plans to build a 1,520-MW gas-fired power station in Greater Manchester, England, were given by local permission in September to a joint venture of Carlton Power (15%) and Electricity Supply Board International (85%). The plant will commence commercial operations in 2013.

Centrica Energy (Windsor, England), a subsidiary of Centrica plc (LON:CNA) (Windsor), has almost finished its 885-MW Langage Power Station, near Plymouth, England. It was supposed to be commissioned this year, but problems with internal pipe works has pushed the delivery date back by up to a year.

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