CCGT+CCS world first: NZT Power still in the running

This essentially means that project is in the running for further UK government funding, and remains on track, its developers say, “to be the world’s first commercial-scale gas-fired power station with carbon capture.” NZT Power is now in negotiations for support, with a final investment decision expected in 2024, but it’s not a done deal: “funding of the project remains subject to the outcome of negotiations, the passing of necessary legislation and compliance with subsidy control rules.”

The proposal is for an H class combined cycle power plant of up to 860 MWe, with post combustion amine-based capture of up to 2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

NZT Power – a joint venture between bp and Equinor, with bp leading as operator – sits at the heart of a proposed decarbonised cluster of industries on Teesside, UK, and will be connected to the CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure being developed by the Northern Endurance Partnership to serve the both the Teesside and Humber regions within what is known as the East Coast Cluster.

The proposed NZT Power CCGT+CCS plant would be designed for rapid start-up, whilst capturing over 95% of emissions. The CO2 is dried and compressed to safely enter the transportation and storage system, with low-carbon power exported to the nearby National Grid Tod Point facility.

In December 2021, bp and partner Equinor awarded contracts as part of its dual Front End Engineering Design (FEED) competition to two separate consortiums of engineering companies:

• Technip Energies and General Electric consortium: led by Technip Energies and including Shell as a subcontractor for the provision of Cansolv CO2 capture technology and Balfour Beatty as construction partner.
• Aker Solutions, Doosan Babcock and Siemens Energy consortium: led by Aker Solutions and including Aker Carbon Capture as provider of CO2 capture technology.

The two competing engineering groups will design and submit development plans for NZT Power’s proposed power station and carbon capture plant, and Northern Endurance Partnership’s planned Teesside high pressure carbon dioxide compression and export facilities.

A Development Consent Order (ie, planning permission) application has been submitted for NZT Power, and the associated public consultation is reported to be exhibiting strong public support for the proposals, along with proposals for the Northern Endurance Partnership elements onshore on Teesside, the CO2 gathering network, CO2 compression and the onshore export pipe network.

A second CCGT+CCS contender for support via the Cluster Sequencing process, the 910 MW Keadby 3 project, being developed by SSE Thermal and Equinor, was not selected at this stage, but hopes to “have further opportunities in the planned Track 1 expansion process.” In December 2022, Keadby 3 became the first power CCS project in the UK to receive a Development Consent Order.