Scottish & Southern Energy Plan UK's First Cleaner Coal Power Plant

Scottish and Southern Energy plc has entered into an agreement with Mitsui Babcock, Siemens and UK Coal to undertake the front end engineering design of a carbon capture ready 500MW cleaner coal plant at its Ferrybridge Power Station in West Yorkshire.

The development of the plant would involve the 'retrofit' of a 500MW Supercritical Boiler and turbine providing a thermal cycle efficiency of more than 45%, which would be the first of its kind in the UK. It would be made ' capture ready' to facilitate the subsequent deployment of post-combustion carbon dioxide capture equipment. Typical conventional coal-fired power stations have a thermal efficiency of around 36%.

As the UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks stated in April 2006: "Coal and other fossil fuels remain vital ingredients in our energy mix, but we need to reduce the impact that burning them has on our environment." In this context, the development announced today would represent a significant step forward in the provision of de-carbonised electricity in the UK.

On completion, the installation of the supercritical plant would save around 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year compared with a conventional plant, which is equivalent to developing 230MW of wind farm capacity. The subsequent deployment of carbon capture equipment would save a further 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to almost 800MW of wind farm capacity.

High-level engineering feasibility studies into the project have already been completed. The partners will now carry out further detailed front-end engineering design work with the aim of confirming the viability of the scheme. This work is expected to be complete within the next year. This will allow investment decisions to be taken during 2007. Subject to that, the supercritical plant could be in commercial operation in 2011/12.

Installation of the supercritical plant is estimated to require an investment by SSE of around £250m and the post-combustion carbon dioxide capture equipment is estimated to require a further investment by SSE of around £100m. SSE would own and operate the supercritical plant and the carbon capture equipment, if deployed.

The project will also examine the opportunities for securing supplies of fuel for the station from coal in the UK, such as that mined at Kellingley which is very close to Ferrybridge itself.

SSE has already begun the installation of flue gas desulpherisation equipment on half of the capacity at Ferrybridge, which has a total capacity of 2,000MW.

Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE said: "Investment in the development and deployment of new and emerging technologies for generating electricity is a key part of SSE's long-term strategy for sustainable electricity generation in the UK. The ability to deploy technology to 'de-carbonise' fuel to provide low emissions generation, while ensuring we are still able to use coal reserves as primary fuel sources, would be of enormous value.

"Although it is early days as far as far as this development is concerned, I believe that cleaner coal represents a very exciting opportunity for SSE and for the UK as a whole and I am looking forward to the outcome of the next phase of engineering studies."

Iain Miller, Chief Operating Officer of Mitsui Babcock, the lead contractor, said: "The development of the plant at Ferrybridge paves the way for a significant new trend in clean coal for the entire industry. Clean coal technology is already able to deliver 30-40% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions but this partnership heralds the beginning of even greater CO2 capture possibilities. We hope this is only the start of a new generation of cleaner coal plants across the UK."

Jens-Peter Saul, Managing Director, Siemens Power Generation, adds: "The ability to retrofit existing fossil fuel power stations with high efficiency, low emission, power generation technology is a potentially ground-breaking development for the UK energy industry. We are very excited to be participating in this innovative project and working closely with SSE and our partners to bring these plans to fruition."

Gerry Spindler, Chief Executive UK Coal concludes: "This is an exciting prospect which we are pleased to be part of and hope this venture is indicative of our joint desires to provide a clean, green generation plant using indigenous coal to secure some of the UK's energy needs."

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Scottish & Southern Energy
Mitsui Babcock
Supercritical Plant
Carbon Dioxide Capture

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Posted 31/05/06

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