Britain Approves Two New Gas-Fired Power Plants

Britain gave approval on Thursday for the construction of two new 299 MW gas-fired power plants.

One plant, developed by Progress Power Ltd, will be located in Suffolk, east England, and take around 21 months to construct.

The other, developed by Hirwaun Power Limited, will be situated in South Wales and construction will take between 18 and 36 months.

Both will operate as peaking plants, meaning they provide electricity when there is a surge in demand or when there is a sudden drop in power from other power plants.

Britain is experiencing increasingly tight winter power supplies due to power plant closures.

Its nuclear power plants are ageing; several of its coal power stations have closed or are due to close as environmental regulation gets stricter and gas-fired plants have struggled to be profitable.

A significant amount of new investment in modern gas-fired power generation is needed by the end of this decade and beyond to ensure security of energy supply.

National Grid (NGG) said it had tools to bolster its response to tighter margins, including a scheme to encourage utilities to make idle capacity available and paying offices and factories to cut power use during winter.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney)