InterGen has awarded Siemens a £1Bn turnkey contract to construct and maintain two gas fired power plants that will create 3,000 construction jobs.
Construction is expected to start in 2015 for completion by 2018 on the sites at Spalding in Lincolnshire and the Gateway Energy Centre in Essex. Planning approval has already been granted for both projects, which will be adjacent to existing plants.
An InterGen spokesman said negotiations were still under way about financing and the sale of the 2.1 gigawatts of electricity that would be produced. The project to expand energy generation at Spalding has been on hold since 2010, after plans were announced in 2008, due to uncertainties about the price that would be paid and the difficulty of obtaining finance.
News about support under the UK Guarantee Fund, which recently announced support for the proposed Hinkley C nuclear power plant, is hoped for shortly. The plants will both use Siemens’ advanced H Class gas turbines for the first time in the UK.
These plans confirm InterGen, a Netherlands owned company, as the UK’s largest independent gas fired producer, with three existing natural gas fired plants, the third being at Rocksavage in Cheshire.
InterGen’s European business head Mark Somerset said: “These are great sites and the combination of the Siemens offer, low cost access to the networks and proximity to existing InterGen plant will make these plants ultra competitive. InterGen stands ready to deliver energy for the UK provided government delivers electricity market reform which attracts investment and gives our customers and ourselves the confidence we each need.”
Photo of site of Gateway Energy Centre: Terry Joyce
