Plant operation

The power station will be designed to operate continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to maintain system efficiency. There will be periods of planned and unplanned maintenance, but the plant could operate at above 90% utilisation, or approximately 8000 hours a year.

The power is likely to be sold on market terms and therefore actual production will vary from day to day and year to year. Modern super critical power stations such as that proposed have the advantage of being able to increase or decrease production levels within half an hour, thus responding to market conditions.

As such the power station would not restrict other forms of renewable energy at the site or within the wider area; in fact the proposed development could be complimentary rather than competing with other possible forms of energy generation.