Thursday 19 September 2019

Government grants approval for gas peaking power plant in Wales

The government has given the go-ahead for the development of a rapid response gas-fired power station in Wales.

The £90 million Abergelli Power Project, located north of Swansea, will have a total capacity of up to 299MW – enough electricity to supply around 150,000 homes.

According to energy giant Drax Power, which owns developer Abergelli Power, the open cycle gas turbine plant will be able to go from cold to full load in less than 20 minutes, enabling it to respond quickly to support the grid.

As a peaking and flexible power station, it would not be operational all the time but produce electricity for up to a maximum of 2,250 hours in a year.

The development of the project is expected to create up to 150 jobs during the two-year construction period and up to 15 full time skilled jobs once operational.

Andy Koss, CEO Generation at Drax said: “Securing this approval from the Secretary of State is a crucial step in ensuring development of the new gas generation the UK needs to provide flexible power and system support services to the electricity grid as part of the country’s transition to a low carbon economy.

“Rapid response gas power stations are agile enough to ramp up quickly and support the grid at times of peak demand, making them highly complementary to intermittent renewable sources of power, like wind and solar. Flexible, reliable power stations like this are essential to provide the power Britain’s homes, businesses, transport and infrastructure need.”