Peak Gen
A New Power Play
The UK electricity system is in need of new ‘peaking’ generation capacity to both replace ageing plants and to cover the intermittency of generation provided by the new large renewable projects. In fact for every 8kW of wind installed, around one kW of new peaking plant is required – so an increasing amount of peaking plant is essential to enable the significant growth in renewable energy that is planned over the next few years.
Backed by Pioneer Point Partners, PeakGen was formed in 2010. We have developed and built five new power plants and intend to continue to build, own and operate peaking power plants to fulfill this growing need.
The plants will be used by the National Grid to provide short term reserve.
We have access to a portfolio of existing standby diesel plants and will also be investing in new high-efficiency diesel and gas turbine generator sets.
We have identified a range of sites across the UK both with existing plant and as a base for our new build projects. Our first new-build plant was commissioned in October 2011 and handed over to National Grid for STOR service. Since then several more have been added.
Our Aims
PeakGen aims to grow to several hundred MW of installed capacity over the next five years. This compares with a total estimated market for new peaking capacity of 2000-4000MW over the same period.
Our growth will come from aggressive organic development but we are also continually looking at acquisition opportunities.
We aim to be the supplier of choice to National Grid for short term capacity.