From nuclear plant cooling systems to major windfarms being given the green light, a number of low-carbon energy projects are taking place around the sector.
UKPN Services has also announced it is working to make Manchester’s Metrolink greener.
Utility Week takes a look at these, and some of the other key projects happening around the sector.
EDF
EDF has begun work at Hinkley Point C to install the 38,000 concrete segments required to support the three underground marine tunnels up to 33 metres below the seabed of the Bristol Channel.
Once completed these tunnels will form the nuclear plant’s cooling system and will have the capacity to transfer 120,000 litres of water per second.
Pre-fabricated nuclear-grade concrete segments will be constructed to ensure that each of the three tunnel boring machines is able to deliver “significant efficiency savings” whilst excavating over 11 tonnes of rock per minute.
Rob Jordan, Hinkley Point C construction director, said: “The start of tunnelling at Hinkley Point C represents a hidden but vitally important milestone in the construction of the UK’s first new nuclear power station in a generation.”
UK Power Networks Services
UKPN Services has announced it will help deliver projects to renew and upgrade Manchester Metrolink’s electrical infrastructure to help support Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM’s) green transport strategy.
The Metrolink is already one of Greater Manchester’s most sustainable forms of transport, with the trams operating on renewable energy sources.
With the population of Greater Manchester having risen to 2.8 million people, the electrical upgrade will ensure that the tram system continues to meet the city’s economic growth ambitions.
The first project that UKPN Services will work on under the framework is a seven-month programme currently under way, which will include inspecting and replacing electrical equipment, the design of digital signals, and assessment of the current fibre optic communications at electricity substations.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN)
Ofgem has conditionally approved Scottish and Southern Electricity Network’s (SSEN) plans for a new 220MW transmission connection between the Orkney Islands and the mainland.
The £260 million link is scheduled to be completed by 2023 and will enable new renewable projects to export power to the rest of Britain.
The approval is dependent on at least 135MW of new wind capacity either being awarded a contract for difference (CfD) or being deemed to be likely to be developed by December 2021.
South East Water
South East Water has completed a mains diversion project after tunnelling beneath the M4 motorway.
Highways England is currently upgrading the M4 to a smart motorway between junctions 3 and 12, part of which involves widening the motorway bridge over the River Thames at Bray.
As a result, the water company’s existing raw water main needed to be diverted.
The work involved using a specialist drill to dig a 60-metre-long hole underneath the carriageway. A new water pipe was then passed through.
The work took place in Monkey Island Lane, Maidenhead, close to Junction 8/9 of the M4.
Eon
Eon has had its application to build a 54.4MW onshore windfarm in East Ayrshire approved by the Scottish government.
The 16-turbine Enoch Hill Wind Farm will be located west of New Cumnock.
Eon already owns more than 20 onshore and offshore wind farms in the UK, as well as biomass plants in Scotland and South Yorkshire, and has invested more than £3.3 billion in UK renewables in the last decade.
The company built its first wind farm on Anglesey in 1992 and was a partner in the UK’s first offshore wind farm – Blyth in Northumberland – in 2000.
Drax
Drax has been granted a development consent order to build a 299MW open-cycle turbine at Abergelli Farm near Felindre in South Wales.
The power station, which is expected to cost up to £90 million to build, will provide flexible backup generation to fill the gaps in renewable output. Drax said it is expected to run for no more than 1,500 hours per year on average.
The company said it could begin generating power as soon as 2022, subject to it securing an appropriate capacity market agreement.