Centrica to build Britain’s first major power station costing £400m |
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Published
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Sat, 17 Jun 2006 16:10
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LONDON: Energy consumers can now feel more secure about uninterrupted supply with British Gas getting the go-ahead for a new 885-megawatt gas-fired plant.
British Gas owners Centrica said the project was part of plan to boost its own resources so that it is able to meet three quarters of demand rather than only one third that it had been doing so until now. The new plant costing £400m would help reduce dependence on wholesale energy markets. It will be built at Langage near Plymouth and will generate enough power to meet the energy needs of one million homes.
The new plant will enable Centrica to meet 11 percent of the peak demand from residential consumers. The project will be the biggest of its kind for five years, Centrica said.
In recent quarters analysts had predicted a near-crisis situation in the kingdom’s power supply. The UK will have fewer power generation sources than it needs, analysts had warned. The result, they said, would be demand outstripping supply, pressuring companies like Centrica to buy more from wholesale markets.
Centrica has raised gas and electricity prices four times already in the last two and half years and has warned consumers to expect another rise in the coming months. Customers have been sorely disappointed by the “arbitrary manner” in which they have been raising prices, an irate householder said. He said he “ received a nasty surprise in February” when Centrica hiked energy bills by 22 percent. Soon afterwards, the company lost more than 300,000 customers.
The company said current year earnings could be hit by the outages at its Rough plant, a tax bill that is expected to be higher this year and soaring wholesale prices.
The new plant would become operational by the winter of fiscal year 2008-2009.
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Centrica's profits go up 11% 