In 2004, a team of environmentally-conscious entrepreneurs formed 2OC Limited, a clean energy company, to fight climate change by utilising the sustainable energy potential of gas pressure reduction stations (PRSs). In September 2007, 2OC Limited and National Grid plc1, the UK's largest energy transporter and the owner and operator of most of the UK’s PRSs, formed Blue-NG Limited.
They agreed to construct and operate a new type of highly efficient power station; initially at eight different PRSs. This innovative power station is known as the Combined Heat and intelligent Power unit (CHiP) and provides an intelligent and efficient solution to the twin problems of how to increase supplies of renewable energy and improve energy security.
The CHiP offers the UK an unrivalled opportunity to show climate change leadership by example, in Europe and beyond, by promoting a major, new sustainable energy solution, capable of rapid and substantial deployment. It has the potential to contribute substantially to the UK’s carbon emissions reduction targets, in a way that is acceptable to the NGO community.
CHiPs achieve further emissions reductions by replacing, initially with liquid biomass engines, the gas boilers currently used to pre-heat the gas to avoid unacceptable temperature drops during the reduction process.
The first CHiP unit is planned to start generating power in mid 2010 and will be in Beckton, East London. The predicted energy potential of the Beckton plant is 19.5MWe, sufficient to meet the electricity needs of 50,000 homes, with plenty left over. The second plant has a similar output and will be based in Southall, on the western fringes of London, and is planned for late 2010.
Blue-NG is committed to being an ethical and transparent company and to operate to strict policies and procedures for the procurement of all the biomass fuel it uses. Blue-NG’s aim is to make a significant contribution to the mitigation of climate change by deploying its innovative technology wherever it is viable to do so.
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