Welsh Power is committed to supporting the UK ambition of achieving Clean Power by 2030. Defined as generating less than 5% of electricity from unabated gas generation this ambitious target has been adopted by the UK Government and now informs all decisions on the development of the electricity system in GB.
Welsh Power is at the forefront of this transition to a greener electricity system with our state-of-the-art grid stability and flexible generation projects.
Until fairly recently our electricity in the UK was generated by a small number of very large power stations that were operated on fossil fuels. These fossil fuel power stations, whilst carbon intensive, were synchronous with the electricity grid and in addition to their power generation they also provided essential system stability services such as inertia, reactive power, voltage and frequency control.
Renewables such as wind and solar are a-synchronous and do not provide these same key system stability services. As running hours on traditional fossil fuel plants are reduced, and generation from wind and solar plants continues to increase, there is a growing need to install innovative solutions to replace the stabilising properties once provided by the carbon emitting power plants. Further, NGESO currently has to constrain renewable generation and replace it with carbon emitting generation to ensure a stable system. This is both expensive and inconsistent with a zero-carbon electricity grid. This means that new grid stability solutions will become an increasingly important part of the UK’s electricity system and synchronous condensers are one solution for providing these grid stability services.
We are the leading developer in the UK for grid stability and to date have successfully developed seven synchronous condenser facilities around the UK.
The first, awarded a contract in NESO’s Pathfinder round 1, is complete and operational, supporting the stability of the grid in South Wales. Four projects, awarded contracts under NESO’s Pathfinder round 2 are approaching the final stages of construction, commissioning and testing and will soon be operational and delivering short circuit contributions to the electricity networks in Scotland. The final two projects, awarded contracts under NESO’s Pathfinder round 3 are under construction and will be operational in 2026. See our Grid Stability project page for more information.
In addition to this, we operate flexible reserve power plants that provide capacity and top-up power when necessary and at times of peak demand. These reserve power plants are a key bridging technology helping to fill the gap caused by the intermittency of renewable generation sources ensuring electricity demand can be met at all times. See our Reserve Power project page for more information.
We also develop, construct and operate battery storage projects which are key to the transition to a low-carbon system as they provide energy at times when renewable generation is low. See our Battery project page for more information.
Taken together our assets play a key and growing role in the energy transition.
