• Government policy moving in the right direction to ensure coal plays a role in a low carbon future
• National Grid can play a key role in making CCS a reality
• CCS is good news for wind and nuclear generation too

Commenting on today’s announcement by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, National Grid Chief Executive Steve Holliday said:

“The expansion of the number of CCS demonstration projects announced in yesterday’s Budget was good news, and today we have another indication that Government policy is moving in the right direction to ensure coal plays a role in our low carbon future.  National Grid can play a key role in turning this vision into reality.

“Transporting carbon dioxide is the vital third element alongside capturing the emissions at the power stations and storing it offshore so we welcome the Government’s focus today on clusters of CCS projects sharing pipeline networks.   National Grid is in discussion with a number of parties interested in pursuing CCS, and with our pipeline expertise we are well placed to help deliver the networks to link up these clusters.

“The huge reduction in emissions CCS could deliver is a big green prize in its own right, but as the company balancing supply and demand National Grid is uniquely positioned to recognise that CCS is good news for wind and nuclear generation too.  Both these low carbon technologies have a strong role for the future, but wind is intermittent and nuclear is large but inflexible in its output.  Flexible CCS coal generation, able to quickly ramp its output up and down, would play a valuable role complementing other generation in a diverse low carbon generation mix.”

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For further media information only, please contact Stewart Larque on 01926 655274 or Isobel Rowley on 01926 655275

The UK has some of the best opportunities for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Europe, with power stations and other heavy industry close to the North Sea oil and gas fields that, when depleted, could provide storage for their carbon dioxide emissions.  CCS networks in Scotland, Humberside, Teesside and the South of England could together result in a reduction of over 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to taking 50 million cars off the road.

National Grid’s press release on the Ofgem industry consultation on the potential for future reuse of some natural gas pipelines in Scotland for carbon dioxide transportation as North Sea supplies decline is available at http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Media+Centre/PressReleases/2009/080409.htm.

National Grid
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