Contracts finalised on record-sized CHP plant

E.on UK, parent company of Powergen, has signed a deal with National Grid’s Grain LNG terminal, thought to make the £500m power station one of the wold’s largest combined heat and power (CHP) plants.
E.on also announced the impending power station will be built under a turnkey contract with power generation specialist Alstom.
Dr Tony Cocker, managing director of E.on’s UK energy wholesale business said: We are in a race to replace many UK power stations with new schemes that are more efficient and cleaner than anything that has gone before, and this deal shows our commitment to achieving that.
“We are also investing billions of pounds in new onshore and offshore windfarms, biomass power stations and new super efficient coal-fired units.
The new station will be powered by three Alstom GT26 gas turbines and export up to 340MW of waste heat to National Grid’s LNG terminal nearby.
Liquid natural gas will be stored at the terminal in cryogenic tanks. When gas is needed, it is warmed into its gaseous form and delivered into the national transmission system. At present National Grid uses natural gas as a fuel source to warm the LNG, but this new scheme will mean heat from E.on’s power station is used instead, with environmental and efficiency advantages.
It is thought the CHP scheme will result in a reduction of up to 350,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from the Terminal every year.
An additional environmental benefit will be a reduction in the amount of heat discharged to the local River Medway.
Work on the project will start this month, with commissioning expected late next year.