SSE to Build Ferrybridge Multi-fuel Plant in U.K.

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Scottish and Southern Energy plc (OTC:SSEZY) (SSE) (Perth, Scotland) has advanced plans to build a €364 million ($479 million) multi-fuel generation facility at its Ferrybridge power station in West Yorkshire, with the formation of a 50:50 joint venture with Wheelabrator Technologies Inc (Hampton, New Hampshire).

The joint venture, Multifuel Energy Ltd (MFE), will commence construction of a 68-megawatt (MW) multi-fuel facility in late 2012, on the site of the coal-fired Ferrybridge power station. In November last year, SSE received the go-ahead from the U.K. government to develop the combined heat and power (CHP), which had scope to be extended to a 108 MW project. For additional information see November 2, 2011, article - Green Light for Ferrybridge Biomass Project. Wheelabrator Technologies Inc, a subsidiary of Waste Management Incorporated (Houston, Texas), currently owns and/or operates 22 energy facilities in the United States, 17 of which are energy from waste (EfW) facilities.

"Multifuel technology is a tried and tested way of generating clean, base-load power," commented SSE's Managing Director of Generation, Paul Smith. "This new multi-fuel plant will provide additional diversity to SSE's generation portfolio and make a useful contribution to ensuring we have reliable energy supplies for the future. The transactions that make up this project represent a strong partnership between four major players in the multi-fuel sector, who are committed to making a serious level of investment in this technology."

The bulk of the fuel for the plant will be supplied from the Yorkshire area. MFE has inked a long-term fuel procurement contract for processed waste-derived fuels using waste taken from nearby Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster councils.

Construction of the plant will be undertaken by Hitachi Zosen Inova (Switzerland) later this year with full commissioning promised for the summer of 2015.

Ferrybridge generates around 1,000 MW of electricity but it is due to close in 2015 in accordance with the European Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD). The CHP project is not intended as a replacement for the existing plant, SSE said. Ferrybridge is also the home of the U.K.'s largest proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, rated at 5 MW, which is under development with project partners Doosan Babcock Energy Limited (Renfrew, Scotland) and Swedish energy giant Vattenfall AB (Stockholm). The project is competing in the U.K. government's Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) Delivery Competition which promises to invest €1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) to accelerate the development of commercial scale CCS projects.

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