Mark Emlick's Gas Peaking Plant at Westshore Fraserburgh represents a shift.
As we move away from mainline fossil fuels dependency, fossil fuels take up a supporting role in the more diverse renewable energy market. As the energy industry gradually phases out fossil fuel production, the energy market adapts to market need. Opportunity arises for investors in a number of ways.
Clean energy sources are an excellent way of moving away from fossil fuels but they have their limitations. For instance, Wind power only generates power when it is windy and Solar only generates power during the day. So how does the National Grid manage the constant demand for energy round the clock? By diversifying its sources of power from a variety of power generation methods. Energy flexibility is vital to the National Grid as it copes with the rising energy usage in the UK.
Mark Emlick has ongoing interests in energy markets. Through Consensus Capital, Mark has invested in a 35 Mega Watt Gas Peaking plant at Westshore Fraserburgh. What is a Peaking Plant? A peaking plant generates electricity for the National Grid at times of peak demand.
The location and size of this gas peaking plant makes it suitable for accessing the Balancing Mechanism used by the National Grid. The Balancing Mechanism is only accessible to power generators of a certain size and is one of the tools used by the National Grid to balance electricity supply and demand close to real time. It is needed because electricity cannot be stored and must be manufactured at the time of demand. Where National Grid predicts that there will be a discrepancy between the amount of electricity produced and that which will be in demand during a certain time period, they may accept a ‘bid’ or ‘offer’ to either increase or decrease generation (or consumption). The balancing mechanism is used to balance supply and demand in each half hour trading period of every day.
Medium-large sized Gas Peaking plants offer this flexibility, with a leasehold of 175 years, It becomes a vital piece of infrastructure needed to use a larger array of cleaner energy sources. This investment promises to pay back our initial sum invested in the first 5 years, generating power for the grid for many years to come.