The FM2 facility will generate enough electricity to power around 180,000 households
Image: SSE Thermal’s FM2 power plant has achieved first fire. Photo: courtesy of SSE.
Ferrybridge Multifuel 2 (FM2), SSE Thermal’s 70MW multi-fuel power station project in the UK, has achieved first fire.
FM2 is located next to SSE’s existing FM1 facility and adjacent to the company’s decommissioned coal-fired Ferrybridge ‘C’ Power Station in West Yorkshire.
The facility is owned and operated by Multifuel Energy, a 50-50 joint venture (JV) between SSE and Wheelabrator Technologies. The power generated from the plant is purchased by SSE.
The total investment in the plant is £325m.
An EPC contract was signed with Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), a Swiss company that specialises in energy-from-waste projects, which was also the main EPC contractor for the neighbouring FM1 plant.
FM2 was HZI’s ninth energy-from-waste project in the UK.
Construction on the project began in 2016 and will become operational later this year.
SSE Thermal head of construction (multifuel) Stephen Davis said: “We’re delighted to have reached ‘first fire’ at FM2, which is one of the last big milestones before the plant becomes operational.
“This achievement is the culmination of three years of hard work and I want to say a big thank you to our lead contractor Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), and the entire project team, for getting to this point safely and on schedule.”
Once completed, the facility will generate enough electricity to power 180,000 households. It will also divert around 570,000 tonnes of waste from landfill per year.
The FM2 project generated 900 jobs
The project also generated 900 jobs during construction and 34 full-time jobs are expected to be created once the plant becomes operational.
In January, SSE announced plans to build a 2GW gas-fired power plant on the site of its decommissioned Ferrybridge C coal-fired power station, which was closed in March 2016.
The thermal power plants of the company provide flexible electricity generation to support increasing renewable power across Great Britain.