UK Approves 299-MW Gas Plant

The UK government has approved plans to build a 299-MW open-cycle gas turbine plant near the high-pressure gas grid near Swansea in the south of Wales, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said September 23.

Abergelli Power, a subsidiary of Drax Power, has selected a size of plant that is just below the threshold for which carbon capture readiness would be a precondition. Normally, fossil fuel power plants with a gross generating capacity of 300 MW or more have to be retrofittable with CCS equipment.

The consent includes powers of compulsory acquisition and/or temporary possession of land for the gas and the electrical connection alignment, as well as land for the development and use of a generating station, and for the formation of a land corridor.

Explaining its decision, Beis said there was a "national need for development of new nationally significant electricity generating infrastructure of the type proposed by the applicant. The Secretary of State is also satisfied that the requirements of the Climate Change Act 2008, Welsh Government policy and the Swansea Council LDP and other relevant policy have been met."

Planning permission rules normally require any application to develop a thermal generating station under the 2008 Act to include either combined heat and power (CHP) or contain evidence that opportunities for CHP have been fully explored where the proposal is for a generating station without CHP. But Abergelli Power has satisfied Beis that in this instance there was no need for the plant to be CHP-ready. 

OCGT power plants are less efficient than combined-cycle gas turbines but the latter are best run in steady state, while OCGT can meet power demand instantaneously, making them a good fit with intermittent renewable energy.

The full document, also available in Welsh, can be read here.