WASHINGTON: Teesport, the UK’s fifth largest port by volume and second largest container port in the north, is set to benefit from a green light for the £650m ($840m) Tees Renewable Energy Plant (Tees REP). Financing arrangements for the 299 MWe biomass fuelled combined heat and power (CHP) project, to be located on land within the Teesport Estate near Middlesbrough in north east England, has been finalised. Once operational in 2020, the Tees REP will generate enough electricity to supply approximately 600,000 households as well as heat for supply on site and for nearby users.
From a direct shipping perspective, biomass fuel will be delivered directly to the CHP plant from ships arriving at the adjacent Tees Dock. Teesport, owned and operated by PD Ports, already handles 36 million tonnes of cargo and 4,600 vessels each year. Those numbers will jump once the shipments of wood pellets and chips from certified sustainable forestry sources in the United States and Europe (including the UK) begin.
PD Ports ceo David Robinson has hailed the Tees REP project which is to be financed, owned and operated in a joint venture between Macquarie and Danish pension fund PKA. “This is excellent news for Teesside and gives substantial impetus to the long-term economic activity in the area as well as positioning the region as a major energy hub, creating hundreds of jobs and many more in the wider supply chain,” Robinson said. “Attracting such a significant UK energy infrastructure project to Teesport further complements recent investments made by PD Ports including the decision to redevelop our Number One Quay last year”. The Tees REP is to be built under a turn-key “engineering, procurement and construction” contract by a consortium of Tecnicas Reunidas of Spain and Samsung Construction and Trading (SCT) of South Korea.
The CHP plant will boast one circulating fluidised bed boiler. It will produce steam which will be driven by a single steam turbine to generate electricity that will be exported directly to the high voltage national grid system. At least 600 jobs will be created during construction (site preparation works will begin within weeks) and “about 100 full time jobs” sustained on site once operational plus several hundred more in the supply chain. The Tees REP is believed to be the largest new build dedicated biomass power plant in the world.
