Drax Group has completed the previously announced acquisition of a portfolio of pumped storage, hydro and gas-fired plants from Iberdrola company ScottishPower, giving Drax a bigger role in the UK’s energy system.
The deal, valued at £702 million, adds 2.6GW of generation capacity to Drax’s portfolio, and will increase Drax’s electricity generation capacity by 60%.
“As a British energy company, we are very proud to be the new owners of these critically important power stations across England and Scotland. For decades Drax has been at the heart of our energy system and now we’re going to play a bigger role than ever,” said Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer of Drax Group. “We are investing in Great Britain by acquiring this portfolio of flexible, low-carbon and renewable generation assets. They complement our existing activities by providing very flexible power which not only keeps the lights on for thousands of households, but also provides crucial system support services to the grid, maintaining secure supplies and enabling more renewables like wind and solar onto the system”.
The portfolio consists of Cruachan pumped storage hydro (440MW) in Argyll, run-of-river hydro locations at Galloway and Lanark (126MW) and a biomass-from-waste facility at Daldowie in Scotland as well as four Combined Cycle Gas Turbine stations in England: Damhead Creek (805MW) in Kent, Rye House (715MW) in Hertfordshire, Shoreham (420MW) in West Sussex and Blackburn Mill (60MW) in Lancashire.
The sites are complementary to Drax’s existing generation activities and means the company has developed from a single-site generation business into a multi-site, multi-technology operation.
The acquisition was originally announced on 16th October 2018 and was formally completed on 31st December 2018.
