ESB Plans €900 million Gas-fired Plant in England

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Ireland's state-owned Electricity Supply Board (ESB) (Dublin) is to invest €900 million ($1.2 billion) in building a 1,500 megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in England.

The company's ESB International subsidiary has said that the planned combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station will be located on the site of a former chemical works site at Knottingley near Leeds. The company has carried out some early technical and environmental studies to examine the feasibility of constructing a plant on the site.

A formal application to the new National Planning Inspectorate - responsible for large infrastructure projects - is expected to be made in the first quarter of next year and, successful, ESB believes construction can get underway by 2015 with commissioning in 2018. ESB has previously stated that it wants to develop up to 3,000 MW of wind and gas-fired projects in the U.K. over the coming decade.

The company is aiming to capitalise on the U.K.'s need for new electricity sources as 20% of the country's older power plants will be shut down this decade. Despite the U.K.'s new nuclear build program and its ambitious offshore wind targets, they will not be in place in time to fill the looming energy gap. Gas-fired plants are viewed as the fastest and most efficient solution for the short-to-medium term.

"Final investment decisions are always made with reference to market conditions but we believe there is a market for new gas plants on this timescale in the current market or the one that will be created by EMR (Electricity Market Reform)," Simon James, Knottingley Power's Public Affairs Manager, told the media.

Last month the U.K. government sought to reassure potential investors in gas-fired projects by implementing a set of contentious proposals aimed at speeding up investment. Introduced by Edward Davey, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, the proposals include allowing all new gas-fired plants to run without any carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology until 2045. For additional information, see related March 21, 2012 article - Big Boost for U.K. Gas-Fired Plants.

ESB International already has a presence in the U.K. gas-fired power sector. In January 2010, the company and its joint-venture partner, Scottish and Southern Energy plc (OTC:SSEZY) (SSE) (Perth, Scotland), fired up the Marchwood power station near Southampton. The CCGT plant has a generating capacity of 842 MW. For additional information, see related January 31, 2010 article - Marchwood Power Station Near Southampton Opens for Business.

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