Our Sites
Blackburn Mill and Embedded Generation
ScottishPower operates embedded generation on behalf of a number of customers as follows:
- Three Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants, totalling 9.9MW for Pilkington, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of glass and glazing products, at St Helens, Merseyside
- A 1MW CHP at Basingstoke Hospital for North Hampshire NHS Trust, and
- A 1.7MW CHP for Pearson’s tomato growers, Cheshire, where the CHP provides the energy for Pearson’s vast greenhouses and the CO2 emissions are recycled to provide an enhanced atmosphere that improves the yield and quality of the tomatoes.
Blackburn Mill Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power station was commissioned in 2002 as a CHP plant.
The station originally met all the energy and process steam needs of the former Sappi Paper Mill in Blackburn, exporting any excess power to the grid.
Since the paper mill was closed in November 2008, Blackburn Mill has been operating at full load, supplying 60MW of electricity to the national grid.
Blackburn Mill uses natural gas to generate electricity and does so efficiently - it has a thermal efficiency rating of between 80% and 85%.
Blackburn Mill Power Station operates subject to conditions contained in an Environmental Permit issued and enforced by the Environment Agency.
The station maintains an Environmental Management System EMS) that is accredited to the international standard, ISO 14001.
For further information, see the site environmental management section and our downloads: