Advanced turbines
Stephen Byers, the UK Trade Secretary, has said that he will not raise any objection to plans for the construction of a 500 MWe power plant at Baglan Energy Park, South Wales. The scheme was proposed by the Baglan Cogeneration Company, and the plant will be used to provide steam and electricity to a new energy park. However, local approval and other clearances under section 36 of the 1989 Electricity Act.
The plant will be a combined cycle gas-fired plant using the H-system technology from GE Power Systems. The Baglan energy park is being constructed on a site owned by BP Amoco. Other partners in the project include the Neath/Port Talbot Council and the Welsh Development Agency.
Stephen Byers said that the grounds for exception for the current effective moratorium on combined cycle gas turbine plants are combined heat and power, dual-firing, black start, and particular projects that will support environmental projects. He concluded that, based on the evidence that had been presented, the proposed project did not carry sufficient benefits in these categories to justify overturning the de facto moratorium. However, he also concluded that the other benefits of the project, in particular, its potential to create and support jobs in the region, combined with the benefits offered by the new technology, were indeed sufficient to allow him to permit the project to continue.
It is understood that the plant will supply electricity at 30 per cent below retail electricity costs. The cost of the station has been estimated at £300 million.
It is felt that this ruling was not likely to signal an easing in the gas moratorium.
Government critics have suggested that the decision to allow the plant to go ahead was based more on political considerations, coming as it does ahead of the elections for the Welsh assembly.
If the plans go ahead, it will be the first plant to make use of GE’s H-technology gas turbines, which have advanced steam cooling for the blades.
Tests indicate the new technology will enable combined cycle plants to exceed 60 per cet thermal efficiency.