TotalEnergies UK snaps up gas-fired power plant in £450m deal

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TOTALENERGIES has struck a deal with US investment firm EIG to buy out all shares of its UK power producer, West Burton Energy, in a deal worth £450m (US$574m).

The deal will see TotalEnergies take control of West Burton B, a gas-fired power plant in Nottinghamshire, UK, which has a combined energy output of 1.3 GW and supplies power to around 1.8m homes.

Three combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT) are used at the plant, which take exhaust heat from gas turbines to produce up to 50% more electricity.

Gas production accounts for 70% of the company’s total energy production in the UK, with major offshore locations in the Northern, Central, and Western parts of the North Sea.

It supplies gas and electricity to around 300,000, and produced an average daily production of 142,000 boe/d in 2023.

By 2030, however, TotalEnergies has set itself the goal to triple its renewable energy output and double energy efficiency, slashing its methane emissions in the process. This effort will include the on-going investment into renewable energy technology, with the use of gas as a “flexible transitional energy.”

Stéphane Michel, the president of gas, renewables and power at TotalEnergies, said: “This acquisition contributes to our integrated strategy in the UK, which combines renewable and flexible generation capacity.”

Using gas as a transition to renewables

With more renewables capacity set to come online, the company has estimated that it will only need 700 MW of gas-based power generation and plans on divesting 50% of its output capacity from West Burton.

Michel added: “[The acquisition] complements our 1.1 GW Seagreen offshore wind farm and allows us to accelerate development of our integrated power activities in power generation, trading and marketing in this market.”

Along with Seagreen, TotalEnergies is developing two other offshore wind projects, the West of Orkney windfarm in Scotland, and Outer Dowsing in Lincolnshire, with a gross renewable capacity of 2 GW and 1.5 GW, respectively.

The company has 1.1 GW of renewables capacity installed in the UK, and a further 4.5 GW under development.

The West Burton deal is still subject to approval, but as part of its development plans to 2030, TotalEnergies plans to invest US$17-18bn into low-carbon energy, and a further US$5bn in its flexible power generation model.