SSE buys Westfield for £12.3m

Scottish and Southern Energy has bought Westfield power station in Cardenden, Fife for £12.3m.

The 120MW combined cycle gas turbine plant has been in administration since January 2003 and was once owned by a group of shareholders that included US-based energy company El Paso. The purchase should secure the jobs of the 10 staff that work there.

SSE says it will spend up to £3m more to upgrade the plant and improve its performance.

This deal means the total capacity of SSE’s power stations is 5,700MW. The firm now has the fifth largest portfolio of power stations, with around 7.5% of the total. Its previous purchase was that of Medway Power, which SSE bought for £242m in October 2003.

The chief executive of SSE, Ian Marchant, said: “The acquisition of a smaller station such as Fife Power will provide further diversity of plant mix within our generation portfolio, particularly in the mid-merit sector.

“The introduction of the new electricity trading rules (BETTA) in April 2005 will remove interconnector constraints and the value of Fife to SSE’s generation portfolio can be further optimised. We expect Fife Power to run flexibly in order to both maximise its value and to support SSE’s management of risk in the electricity market.”