Given a winter of disconnect is mooted by some, any introduction of a real power station is news but not just yet.
3 The Order, if made, would grant development consent for the construction and operation of a thermal generating station that would operate either as a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant or as an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant, with a total electrical output of up to 470MWe at North Killingholme, Lincolnshire. The generating station would only be able to burn other types of fuel such as coal and biomass[1] if the full Carbon Capture Storage chain is in place. A separate Environmental Permit, controlling emissions from the plant, will also be required from the Environment Agency before the generating station can be operated.
–http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/projects/yorkshire-and-the-humber/north-killingholme-power-project/
Combined Cycle Gas Turbine is one of those over-egged technologies with party trick claims. As sustained base load the thermal efficiency is good but part load is dreadful, becomes a gas turbine, one of the less bright inventions which has a redeeming feature of great power in a small space. A lot to do with heat engines is counter intuitive. A weakness is always a sharp drop in thermal efficiency with power reduction, how rapidity it drops varies greatly with the technology.
And IGCC? That is where things get bad.
Either poor usage of coal and given the proximity to the North Sea coast this is about the proposed burning of coal underground or about similarly poor energy usage of some other waste or perhaps even misuse of wood. The twist is that neither are allowed without “full Carbon Capture Storage chain is in place”
That might be a poison chalice or hedging bets but given my cynical knowledge of the establishment it will be manipulative. how things are slide in.
Nevertheless we are paying for the land space on site for the equipment, curious given no-one knows how much space is needed, practical has not been invented yet.
Looking at a map it is close to Immingham docks and freight rail although the UK is not really a freight user [updated note 2 below]. Given the area is more known for food production (using a lot of immigrant or casual labour), goodness knows what is in mind on burning other stuff.
Openstreetmap
Updated:
1. Commenter “RA” raises a novel and important point in comments about burning biomass being required to use CCS
2. Commenter “John, UK” disagrees about rail freight usage pointing out there is rail freight traffic to power stations from Immingham docks. I replied in comments but his point is correct. My view was too slanted toward UK rail as a whole.
Post by Tim
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Tim: The interesting thing here is that the plant is allowed to burn gas but can only burn coal or biomass with CCS. Until very recently biomass was a fuel of the future, clean, carbon-neutral, renewable, sustainable etc. etc., but all of a sudden it’s as bad as coal.
And if biomass is as bad as coal I guess they’re going to have to hang CCS on Drax too.
“Carbon Capture Storage”
Fly-ash filters, and all ash exported to those Indian / Pacific Ocean islands complaining of being at risk of inundation from the threatened mm rise of sea level.
Two problems solved.
“Looking at a map it is close to Immingham docks and freight rail although the UK is not really a freight user” ???
The port of Immingham is a major source of rail freight traffic including (2013) coal for Drax, West Burton, Eggborough, Ferrybridge and Ratcliffe Power Stations, iron ore for Scunthorpe and oil from Lindsey refinery.
A winter of discontent could well be a possibility. If the Icelandic volcano explodes, expect harsh winter weather and public discontent at the rich kids who run the country.
Carbon Capture and Storage, CCS, is a chemically difficult and very costly way to try to trap and to throw away comparatively miniscule quantities of useful plant food.
John, UK, poorly worded by me. UK railways are not freight orientated, a subject I didn’t want to highlight as a key point. There is an unholy mix trying to fit passenger and freight together, last time I looked at this unlike any other country.
The subject warrants an article, how traffic mix varies by country. In this context, transport of material, pipelines are a major player, including in the UK.
For a period I contracted in a place which is a very major container port. The usage of rail was illuminating, ramshackle, hardly anything uses rail.This was no surprise but explaining why would take a lot of space.
CCS can also be very dangerous. Imagine a major leak,or worse,a terrorist attack on the 70km pipeline from Drax to the North Sea.The CO2 released being heavier than air will sit on the ground,gravity and the wind will take the gas downhill,and the gas will kill every animal/human in its path.No thankyou Mr Davey.I suggest that you think again.
Updated the article to include good comment points by RA and John, UK
winter37 writes “The CO2 released being heavier than air will sit on the ground,gravity and the wind will take the gas downhill”
About 6 metres above sea level
http://elevationmap.net/drax-selby-north-yorkshire-yo8-uk?latlngs=(53.732072,-0.9801860000000033)
Combined Cycle Gas Turbine plants are used widely because of their efficiency. As they are smaller than conventional steam turbine units there tend to be more of them and thus the problem of lower efficiency at part load is largely irrelevant. If they are run at part load they are still more efficient than simple cycle gas turbines or coal fired power stations. The main draw back is that as with all steam power plant the secondary units take time to warm through so are not quite as quick to come on line as simple cycle units. This is commonly solved by installations like the one at Little Barford where the CCGT units is supplemented by a simple cycle unit which can bridge the load during startup.
The only difference between this and an ICGT unit is the source of the gas. With an ICGT unit the fuel comes from synthesis gas produced from coal or oil just as all British gas was prior to the North Sea discoveries.
” The Swedish state owns Vattenfall. Vattenfall runs lignite open pit mining in East Germany. All 8 Rijksdag parties say they want to prohibit Vattenfall from extending Lignite mining (because climate, environment).”
http://notrickszone.com/2014/09/13/global-co2-fight-evaporating-climate-experts-concede-minimal-willingness-to-really-reduce-emissions/#comment-973083
I was told that operating at 60% capacity or below imposed dangerous thermal stresses on CCGT plants, and they were best run above 75%.
Agreed that they are one of the more efficient methods of generating electricity, but why doesn’t the UK look at CHP units (combined heat and power).
Denmark has 9 large and around 600 small units. The electrical side is not that efficient, but with heating supplied for most of the year to surrounding houses the overall efficiency is around 80%.
Admittedly they have problems with wind turbines dumping power and stopping them generating electricity, but leaving them to provide heating uneconomically, but there is a simple solution to that.
Even in the seventies (after the oil price shocks) large skyscrapers in Canada and NE USA were built with their own electricity supplied by diesel generators in the basement, and space heating from heat recovered from the exhaust gases for much of the year.