Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 15TH - 21ST NOVEMBER 2019 | 15 Finance & Investment Eon has completed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with RWE Renewables, which will see the big six supplier acquire 3TWh annually from more than 20 British wind farms. The two-and-a-half-year agreement, which was struck for an undisclosed sum, covers a capacity of 892MW of onshore and offshore wind generation and includes a proportion of the ELECTRICITY Eon signs major power purchase agreement with RWE Renewables London Array, the world's sec- ond largest offshore wind farm. The wind farms were origi- nally built by Eon as part of its £3.3 billion investment in UK renewables over the past decade. They were transferred to RWE as part of the asset swap deal in which Eon Group took over RWE's stake in Innogy in return for, among other things, Eon's major renewable energy activi- ties. The asset swap will also see Eon acquire big six rival Npower. Michael Lewis, chief execu- tive of Eon UK, said: "A signifi- cant element of our commitment to providing all our residential customers with renewable electricity… was the fact we have invested more than £3.3 billion in renewable energy in the UK in recent years. We have now secured the power coming from Roadmap details zero carbon industrial hub Drax, Equinor and National Grid plan the world's first zero carbon industrial hub in Humber region Drax, Equinor and National Grid have published a new roadmap fleshing out their plans to create the world's first zero carbon industrial hub in the Humber region by 2040. The report, produced by Element Energy, emphasises the region's huge potential contribu- tion to the UK's climate change targets as the location of the country's largest industrial cluster by carbon emissions. The roadmap sets out proposals to build a demon- stration hydrogen production facility in the region by 2025 and install carbon capture equipment on one of the four biomass units at Drax's power station in Selby two years later. The power station would form the anchor for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) network connected to storage sites in the North Sea. The pipeline would also transport carbon emissions from the hydrogen production facility, which would be used to feed a hydrogen network. Over the late 2020s and the following decade, carbon capture equipment would be installed on the remaining three biomass units at Drax and hydrogen production would be scaled up. The report says the project would help protect the 55,000 industrial jobs in the region and save businesses £27.5 billion in carbon taxes by 2040. "The race to cut carbon emissions is one we can win," said Drax Group chief executive Will Gardiner. "This plan sets out a clear blueprint of how to get the Humber to net zero – the impact of decarbonising the most carbon-intensive region in the country will make a major contribution to the UK reaching its world-leading climate goals. Zero starts here." TG ELECTRICITY ESO launches first tender for inertia The electricity system operator (ESO) has launched its first ever tender for inertia as part of its efforts to make the power grid ready for zero carbon operation by 2025. The body is seeking to procure up to 25 GVAs (gigavolt- ampere-seconds) of inertia for a six-year period starting in April 2020. This equates to around a third of the ESO's minimum overall requirement of 70 GVAs. Inertia refers to the resist- ance of the electricity system to sudden changes in frequency. It is currently provided by coal and gas-fired power stations – syn- chronous generators featuring large spinning masses rotating in harmony with the frequency of the power grid. As old fossil fuel plants are replaced by new asynchronous renewable generation, the iner- tia of the power grid is falling, leaving it more susceptible to disturbances. The ESO's stability pathfinder tender will seek to maintain the requisite level of inertia but without boosting generation from conventional power plants: "This is about buying the spin- ning element rather than the megawatts," explained Julian Leslie, head of network capabil- ity at National Grid ESO. Leslie told Utility Week the services are initially expected to be provided by coal and gas plants that are spinning their turbines while on standby but not generating any electricity – or at least very little. However, the ESO plans to hold a second pathfinder tender early next year for services beginning in 2023. This will give providers the opportunity to con- struct purpose-built assets such as flywheels and compensators. ELECTRICITY IEA: SMRs 'may be more economical' Small modular reactors (SMRs) may be a more economical way to deliver nuclear power in developed economies than large plants, according to a senior offi- cial at the International Energy Agency (IEA). Peter Fraser, head of the IEA's gas, coal and power markets division, told the Nuclear Watch Institute's 2019 forum last week that there is a case for moving to smaller scale reactors, "particu- larly" in advanced economies. He said: "When the first nuclear expansion took place, growth in electricity demand was 3 to 5 per cent per year. When you built a plant, it didn't matter too much because in a few years you would need the electricity." But Fraser told delegates that the path of growth in electricity demand is uncertain and per- haps a "lot lower" than currently anticipated. He said: "We don't have com- panies that big in the nuclear sector. Smaller bites and smaller morsels make it easier." Anchor: CCS equipment will be installed at Drax all those wind farms, as well as similar arrangements we have with more than a dozen independent generators around the country." Tom Glover, chief commer- cial officer RWE Renewables, said: "PPAs are an extremely important instrument that help to achieve renewable build-out targets and offer stability for all parties involved." This week

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