Conrad Energy, the UK’s biggest independent power producer providing distributed energy generation, has signed another two contracts with Siemens over the supply of containerised gas engines for two new peaking power plants in Wrexham and Bilston. This is in addition to a contract received earlier in 2020 for a plant in Sittingbourne.
The new gas-to-electricity plants will feed additional energy into the National Grid at times of peak demand, boosting the UK’s ability to make wide-scale use of renewable and sustainable energy sources. Flexible, fast-start peaking plants play a key role in guaranteeing a stable energy supply during periods when green energy generation capacity isn’t sufficient to meet demand.
Under the contracts, Siemens will supply at total of seven SGE-56SL 1MWe containerised gas engines. These highly flexible and reliable engines can be powered by a range of fuels – such as natural gas, landfill and sewage gas, flare and well gas and syngas – and deliver excellent return on investment. Siemens will also provide full design of the plug-and-play containerised gas engines to Conrad Energy.
The total capacity of the Siemens engines is 7 MW – enough to power up to 14,000 homes with a fast ramp-up time of just three minutes. In addition to covering peaks in energy demand, the newly built plants will be efficient and flexible enough to be used for general electricity trading at other times.
Steve Conry, Operations Director at Conrad Energy said: “With Siemens, we have an expert partner at our side who has proven willing to always go the extra mile. The team has efficiently responded to all our requirements and provided sound technology advice, which was instrumental in helping us identify and create an optimal solution for the new plants we are building.”
Faye Bowser, Head of Energy Solutions Great Britain and Ireland, Siemens added: “For the UK to make the full switch to a low-carbon economy, we need investments in distributed infrastructure that will make the power network more resilient. We’re pleased to be working with Conrad Energy on these projects. This has been a close partnership approach right from the start, and we’re looking forward to supporting Conrad further in meeting the growing demand for balancing services in the UK electricity market.”
The Sittingbourne peaking plant is scheduled to be completed in February 2021 with the Wrexham and Bilston containers due for delivery from Siemens’ factory in Spain in March 2021.
