Friday 9 August 2019

SSE secures capacity contracts from RWE’s Aberthaw B coal plant

Big Six energy supplier SSE has agreed for the transfer of capacity market contracts from RWE's Aberthaw B coal-fired power station to its gas plant in Scotland.

The news follows German electric utility RWE's announcement to close its 1.56GW coal plant in Wales next March amid “challenging” market conditions.

The energy company had therefore said it would transfer Aberthaw Power Station's existing capacity market agreement for the years 2019/20 and 2020/21 to third parties and a small proportion to other RWE plants.

SSE's Peterhead Power Station in Aberdeenshire will now secure the contracts for both years for the full capacity market volume – 1,051MW and 1,062MW respectively - under the agreement.

The transfer of the 2019/20 capacity obligations has been confirmed with National Grid and the changeover for the following year is expected to be completed when the transfer window opens.

The Peterhead plant already holds capacity contracts for the years 2018/19 and 2021/22.

Stephen Wheeler, SSE's Managing Director of Thermal Energy said: “This agreement means the station will be contracted through to September 2022, helping to safeguard customers' power supplies by offering flexible and reliable generation capacity.”