31st May 2006 07:04
Scottish & Southern Energy PLC31 May 2006 31 May 2006Nr-6115 PLANS FOR THE UK'S FIRST CLEANER COAL POWER PLANT AT FERRYBRIDGE POWER STATION Scottish and Southern Energy plc ("SSE") has entered into an agreement withMitsui Babcock, Siemens and UK Coal to undertake the front end engineeringdesign of a carbon capture ready 500MW cleaner coal plant at its FerrybridgePower Station in West Yorkshire. The development of the plant would involve the 'retrofit' of a 500MWSupercritical Boiler and turbine providing a thermal cycle efficiency of morethan 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 carbondioxide capture equipment. Typical conventional coal-fired power stations havea thermal efficiency of around 36%. As the UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks stated in April 2006: "Coal and otherfossil fuels remain vital ingredients in our energy mix, but we need to reducethe impact that burning them has on our environment." In this context, thedevelopment announced today would represent a significant step forward in theprovision of de-carbonised electricity in the UK. On completion, the installation of the supercritical plant would save around500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year compared with a conventional plant,which is equivalent to developing 230MW of wind farm capacity. The subsequentdeployment of carbon capture equipment would save a further 1.7 million tonnesof carbon dioxide, equivalent to almost 800MW of wind farm capacity. High-level engineering feasibility studies into the project have already beencompleted. The partners will now carry out further detailed front-endengineering 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 allowinvestment decisions to be taken during 2007. Subject to that, thesupercritical plant could be in commercial operation in 2011/12. Installation of the supercritical plant is estimated to require an investment bySSE of around £250m and the post-combustion carbon dioxide capture equipment isestimated to require a further investment by SSE of around £100m. SSE would ownand operate the supercritical plant and the carbon capture equipment, ifdeployed. The project will also examine the opportunities for securing supplies of fuelfor the station from coal in the UK, such as that mined at Kellingley which isvery close to Ferrybridge itself. SSE has already begun the installation of flue gas desulpherisation equipment onhalf of the capacity at Ferrybridge, which has a total capacity of 2,000MW. Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE said: "Investment in the development anddeployment of new and emerging technologies for generating electricity is a keypart of SSE's long-term strategy for sustainable electricity generation in theUK. The ability to deploy technology to 'de-carbonise' fuel to provide lowemissions generation, while ensuring we are still able to use coal reserves asprimary fuel sources, would be of enormous value. "Although it is early days as far as far as this development is concerned, Ibelieve that cleaner coal represents a very exciting opportunity for SSE and forthe UK as a whole and I am looking forward to the outcome of the next phase ofengineering studies." Iain Miller, Chief Operating Officer of Mitsui Babcock, the lead contractor,said: "The development of the plant at Ferrybridge paves the way for asignificant new trend in clean coal for the entire industry. Clean coaltechnology is already able to deliver 30-40% reduction in carbon dioxideemissions but this partnership heralds the beginning of even greater CO2 capturepossibilities. We hope this is only the start of a new generation of cleanercoal plants across the UK." Jens-Peter Saul, Managing Director, Siemens Power Generation, adds: "The abilityto retrofit existing fossil fuel power stations with high efficiency, lowemission, power generation technology is a potentially ground-breakingdevelopment for the UK energy industry. We are very excited to be participatingin this innovative project and working closely with SSE and our partners tobring these plans to fruition." Gerry Spindler, Chief Executive UK Coal concludes: "This is an exciting prospectwhich we are pleased to be part of and hope this venture is indicative of ourjoint desires to provide a clean, green generation plant using indigenous coalto secure some of the UK's energy needs." - ENDS - Notes to Editors: Supercritical plant operates at greater than 'supercritical pressure' (typically300 bar) with 6000C steam conditions. By raising the pressure and temperature ofthe generated steam to supercritical conditions, power plant efficiency isincreased, making more electricity from less coal and reducing CO2 emissionscompared to a conventional plant. Supercritical plant can be 'retrofitted' toexisting coal plants, using the existing infrastructure at the site. Carbon dioxide capture involves generating a concentrated stream of pure carbondioxide for capture and injection into a storage site. Carbon dioxide isseparated and captured from the flue gas stream. The leading technologies inpost-combustion capture are: chemical solvent absorption using amine-basedsolvents, commonly-known as oxyfuel firing. 'Capture' technology is awell-established means of separating carbon dioxide from natural gas (known asnatural gas 'sweetening') and for some other industrial processes but has notyet been used in association with electricity generation in the UK. Enquiries to: Scottish and Southern Energy plcAlan Young - Director of Corporate Communications + 44 (0)870 900 0410Denis Kerby - Investor and Media Relations Manager + 44 (0)870 900 0410 Financial DynamicsAndrew Dowler + 44 (0)20 7831 3113 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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