Meaford Energy’s 229 MWe combined-cycle gas power project in Staffordshire has been given the green light by Britain’s new business and energy secretary, Greg Clark. With Development Consent Order (DCO) being granted, initial ground preparation works for the £300 million CCGT project are set to start this week.
Plans for the Meaford Energy Centre were approved following a three-year examination and consultation process. With all permits in place, project partners “now focus on developing an action plan to deliver the project,” Rupert Wood, director of Meaford Energy said without communicating a concrete start-up date. The project is reportedly meant to be fully operational by 2020.
The CCGT will be built on 14 acres of land currently owned by St. Modwen Properties – one of the JV partners in Meaford Energy Ltd., next to the property investment firm Glenfinnan. The power project is hoped to deliver a “catalyst to progress the development of the Meaford Business Park” which has planning permission for 1 million square feet of employment space.
Construction works will create up to 800 jobs over three years; and once operational, the plant will employ around 30 skilled employees locally. The proposed design of MEC power station complex includes one gas turbine building, up to two HRSGs, a steam turbine, an air-cooled condenser, a demineralised water plant and electrical switchyard and transformers to connect the CCGT to the adjacent Barlaston substation (see illustration).
Flexible CCGTs ‘vital’ for supply security
New flexible gas power projects are vital for security of energy supply in the UK given that a third of the country’s current electricity output is produced by facilities which are due to close over the coming ten years.
Anticipating a rise in power demand over the next two decades, the government said an additional 50 GW of generating capacity would have to be built. New nuclear will cover part of baseload power demand while fast-ramp gas power capacity is needed facilitate the grid integration of wind and solar power.
The 229 MWe CCGT in Staffordshire will help meet UK’s energy needs as set out in the National Energy Policy, particularly in the view of coal power retirements and uncertainty over the delivery of new nuclear power plants, Meaford Energy director Daniel Chapman commented.