The UK’s biggest independent power producer, Conrad Energy, has selected Siemens for its two gas power plants projects in Wrexham and Bilston.

The companies have signed two contracts for Siemens to supply containerised gas engines for the two new peaking power plants.

Siemens will supply seven SGE-56SL 1MWe containerised gas engines as well as provide the full design of the plug-and-play engines to Conrad Energy.

The total capacity of the Siemens engines is 7MW – enough to power up to 14,000 homes with a fast ramp-up time of just three minutes.

The gas engines can be powered by a range of fuels – such as natural gas, landfill and sewage gas, flare and well gas and syngas.

In addition to covering peaks in energy demand in National Grid’s network, the newly built plants will be efficient and flexible enough to be used for general electricity trading at other times.

The project is expected to help boost the UK’s ability to make wide-scale use of renewable and sustainable energy sources.

The Sittingbourne peaking plant is scheduled to be completed in February 2021 with the Wrexham and Bilston containers due for delivery from Siemens’ factory in Spain in March 2021.

The signed contracts are in addition to a contract received earlier in 2020 for a plant in Sittingbourne.

Steve Conry, operations director at Conrad Energy said: “With Siemens, we have an expert partner at our side who has proven willing to always go the extra mile.”

Faye Bowser, head of energy solutions for Great Britain and Ireland at Siemens, added: “For the UK to make the full switch to a low-carbon economy, we need investments in distributed infrastructure that will make the power network more resilient.

“We’re looking forward to supporting Conrad further in meeting the growing demand for balancing services in the UK electricity market.”