Gas-fired generator sets, built by Cummins, have just been delivered to UK Power Reserve’s (UKPR) development site in Carrington, Greater Manchester. The 20 MW facility – as well as four similar-sized projects in England and Wales – are scheduled to start operations in “late summer.”
Embedded gas gensets in Gloucester (20 MW), Immingham (24 MW) and Tonypandy (18 MW) are “all scheduled to go live late summer also,” the operator said, while similar sites Tottenham, Bracknell, and Hemel Hempstead, are due for commissioning in autumn 2016.
All these facilities are part of a UKPR’s wider construction programme that is meant to quadruple its portfolio to 693 MW by 2018.
Producing power at the point of demand
Decentralised gas generation produces electricity at the point of demand helps to balance the power grid, particularly in the event of sudden spikes in demand or constrained reserve margins. Centrally-dispatched gas generation capacity is not forthcoming quickly enough in the UK to avert the risk of power shortages, while new nuclear is delayed an unabated coal likely to be gradually phased out.
Independent power producers, such as UKPR, are seeking to build both industrial-scale and embedded gas power capacity.
“In December 2014, we won 348 MW worth of new build contracts in the UK Capacity Market Auction, split across 22 sites, more than any other participant,” Tim Emrich, head of UKPR said, adding that in the December 2015 auction, it gained a further 160 MW of capacity contracts.
Striving to boost UK’s embedded generation
“We have led all embedded generation in total new MW [in both auctions] and look forward to bringing this and additional capacity online,” he commented.
Eager to stay on track with overall construction, UKPR - majority-owned by two private equity firms, Equistone and Inflexion – has set up a development team of engineers, legal counsel and planning officers, “a major resource expansion,” according to Emrich.
Cummins gensets, deliver to site as part of a turnkey solution, will drive all of UKPR’s latest embedded gas power projects. A typical power plant consists of several modular gensets, allowing for staggered use and gradual ramp-up to around 20 MW capacity. All facilities are controlled remotely from UKPR’s ‘virtual power plant’ in Solihull and are called upon to operate in the wholesale and ancillary services markets.