SSE has confirmed Peterhead Power Station will undertake a one-off non-proving run tomorrow (5 November).

The run has been approved as part of the Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) service. Last month, SSE agreed a one-year contract with the National Grid to provide backup reserve of up to 780MW of capacity from the power station through the SBR service.

It is understood the run by the Aberdeenshire-based power station has been approved, and will be facilitated, by the National Grid.

On Wednesday, the facility will generate throughout the day, increasing its output until the evening peak period, when it will then generate at 740MW for around two hours. Once this non-proving run has been completed, the station will remove itself from service and be unavailable to the market, unless the National Grid calls for otherwise, in accordance with the terms of its SBR contract.

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SSE has said it intends to sell the anticipated electricity generated during this time of operation through the N2EX day ahead auction.

In October, SSE announced it had agreed a one-year contract with the National Grid. The contract is a result of National Grid's tender for the Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) service; this is aimed at the UK-wide generation plant which is not otherwise available to the energy market due to the difficult market conditions facing traditional thermal generation plant.

This means that the Peterhead station will be prevented from business-as-usual participation in the electricity market, with capacity available only if called upon by National Grid.

Under this new contract, there is no change to the station's current operating status, nor does it have any adverse impact on jobs.

(JP/IT)