Consent granted for new gas power station fitted with CCS

Plans for one of the world’s first commercial-scale gas turbine power station fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) have been granted planning permission by energy secretary Claire Coutinho.

The development consent order (DCO) covers both the Net Zero Teesside Power project – a new 860MW combined-cycle gas turbine power station – and CCS infrastructure proposed by the Northern Endurance Partnership.

The latter includes a gathering network in Teesside, a gathering station to compress the captured CO2 and an offshore pipeline to transport the gas to the Endurance storage reservoir under the North Sea.

Net Zero Teesside (NZT) Power is joint venture between BP and Equinor and one of the anchor projects for the Net Zero Teesside industrial cluster.

Alongside Zero Carbon Humber, Net Zero Teesside is part of the amalgamated East Coast Cluster, which was selected by the government to become one of the UK’s first net zero industrial hubs as part of its CCS sequencing programme. NZT Power was one of several Net Zero Teesside projects awarded government funding in March 2023.

The Northern Endurance Partnership – a joint venture between BP, Equinor and Total Energies – is developing the CCS infrastructure for both the Net Zero Teesside and Zero Carbon Humber schemes.

Ian Hunter, managing director of NZT Power, said: “The granting of a development consent order is an important step towards the development of the UK’s first full-scale integrated power and carbon capture project.

“We thank the planning inspectorate and the secretary of state for their work during this process and look forward to taking the project forward to a planned final investment decision in September 2024 or before”.

Louise Kingham, BP’s head of country for the UK and senior vice president for Europe, said: “Receiving development consent is another major milestone for NZT Power. This first-of-a-kind project has the potential to deliver low-carbon flexible power equivalent to the electricity requirements of around 1.3 million UK homes and can help secure Teesside’s position at the heart of the country’s energy transition.

“These moments bring us closer to our goal of supporting the UK government’s commitment to fully decarbonize the power system in the UK by 2035 and will help to enable greater deployment of renewable power by providing flexible, dispatchable low-carbon electricity.”

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen commented: “This is a welcome next step towards getting spades in the ground for this huge investment. Net Zero Teesside Power and the Northern Endurance Partnership can help make us the UK’s first decarbonised industrial cluster, pioneering clean energy and creating the good quality jobs of the future.”

In related news, plans by Enfinium to equip its two 85MW Ferrybridge energy-from-waste plants in West Yorkshire with CCS technology have been designed as a nationally significant infrastructure project, meaning the company will now need to obtain planning permission through the DCO process.

Enfinium said it intends to hold a statutory consultation the project, which entails £800 million of investment over its lifetime, later this year before submitting a DCO application to the Planning Inspectorate in late 2025.

The company’s chief executive Mike Maudsley said: “This designation is an important step in realising our ambition to turn Ferrybridge into one of Europe’s biggest carbon removal projects.

“Carbon capture at Ferrybridge will deliver jobs in the green economy, decarbonise unrecyclable waste produced across the North of England and support West Yorkshire’s plans to have a Net Zero economy by 2038.”