Marchwood officially opens
First gas-fired power station to enter commercial operation in the UK since 2004
News: ESBI
Marchwood Power, ESBI's £380m gas-fired power station located near Southampton, was officially opened by Lochlann Quinn, ESB Chairman and Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) on 28th January 2010.
The 840MW station, which was developed by ESBI and is now jointly owned with SSE, is the first large-scale gas-fired power station to enter commercial operation in the UK since 2004.
Speaking at the official opening, ESB Chairman, Lochlann Quinn said, "I congratulate ESBI and SSE, and all those involved in Marchwood Power's construction. The station is a modern and highly-efficient facility which adds to ESB's generation portfolio and is a key element of ESBI's strategy for the UK energy market".
Construction of Marchwood Power was undertaken by Siemens on a full turnkey basis over a three-year period. The station entered commercial operation in early December 2009 and now generates enough power to meet the energy requirements of over one million homes - the equivalent total needs of Southampton, the New Forest and Winchester areas of southern England. All of its capacity is contracted to SSE under a 15-year tolling agreement.
SSE is the UK's second largest electricity generation business, with interests in over 100 conventional and renewable power stations totalling over 11,000MW. Most of this capacity is located in Britain with the remainder in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Marchwood Power commenced construction in early 2007 and entered commercial operations in late 2009. Padraig McManus, ESB Chief Executive said, "I whole-heartedly congratulate the ESBI Investments and Engineering teams on delivering the most efficient combined cycle gas turbine power station in operation in the UK today".
With the anticipated emergence of a single Irish-UK energy market over the next decade, ESB's generation interests in Britain along with an established presence in Ireland, will ensure it is well positioned to respond to market challenges and opportunities that are likely to arise.
The UK Government sees gasfired power generation as a vital element of Britain's long-term energy strategy and expects other natural gas stations to come online in order to replace some of its ageing generation capacity. ESBI's upcoming Carrington Power CCGT Project and other gas-fired developments are perfectly placed to complement this strategy.
Michael McNicholas, Executive Director, ESB Energy International commented that the successful delivery of Marchwood Power is a significant milestone in the expansion of ESBI's generation portfolio in the UK energy market, noting that "In addition to Marchwood Power, our onshore wind generation interests and other gas-fired development projects place ESB on course to achieve its target of providing over 3GW of generation capacity in the UK within the next 10 years".
