VPI

In the first quarter of the year, renewables provided a record high share of 51% of electricity generation in the UK. In September, we will see coal phased out entirely. This is good news, because it means the energy transition is well underway. It also means that to bridge the gap between the now and the next, power infrastructure needs to adapt. Take our Damhead Creek plant. Ten years ago, it used to start around 30 times in a year. Fast forward to 2023 and it started 167 times. This is because as more renewables come onto the energy system, it needs to come on and off in line with the weather, to ensure we have the power we need to go about our daily lives. This stop/start nature takes its toll on the plants, so we find opportunities to adapt them and develop new ways of operating them. That is why we have embarked on an ambitious multi-year investment programme in Damhead Creek to improve its efficiency and flexibility, and to extend its life. As part of that investment, we are undertaking a 50-day outage to replace a 90 ton, 12 metre long rotor. I went to visit recently, and as you can see from the images, the work is significant, with up to 200 people on site. And I was proud to see the huge focus on doing this work safely. It brings to life how at VPI we believe that achieving net zero is fundamental to all of our futures and getting there means embracing a new energy reality – balancing vision with practical action to find solutions that work. Congratulations to our team and partners for the work accomplished to date! 👍 #energytransition

The energy transition is well underway with renewables now accounting for almost half of the UK’s electricity mix. ☀🍃   What we need to speak more about is how we get the energy system ready to accept these increasing levels of renewables. For example, how do we solve for short term energy gaps and provide reliable and flexible capacity when the weather can’t deliver the power we need? These are some of the topics VPI’s CEO, Jorge Pikunic, covered when he sat down with the Times last week, to reframe some of the discussions in the energy transition. 📰

Great to welcome a group from Worthing College at VPI Shoreham this morning - including my old A-Level Physics teacher Chris! Jenny Thompson

Every element of the carbon capture supply chain has been used before. The challenge is bringing it all together and at the scale required to capture emissions. As part of our continuous learning, the VPI team visited the University of Sheffield's Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC) - a world-leading pilot-scale research centre, working with industry to test and develop green energy solutions for a decarbonised future. We saw the facility's capacity to test and optimise technology at pilot scale for both amine base capture and emerging technologies. Thanks very much to IDC and TERC for hosting us! 🙌 #CCS #Energysecurity

How do we deliver energy security as we transition to net zero ❔ That’s the question our CEO Jorge Pikunic discussed with Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of Energy UK, Alan Whitehead, Shadow Minister for Energy Security and Tom Glover at the New Statesman Energy and Climate Change conference this week. 🎤 It was clear from the discussion that one part of the solution is to accelerate the deployment of renewables at scale and the other part - which we sometimes forget to talk about - is to ensure that we have enough reliable and flexible power throughout the transition. ⚡ The operability of the grid is critical to making this happen. Second by second, we need to deliver a system that is instantly available when renewables are not there but allows them to come back on when they return. And for longer periods – those days or weeks of unfavourable weather that in Germany is referred to as “Dunkelflaute”, we also need to ensure the system remains resilient. ☁ There is no silver bullet to solve any of these challenges, which evolve and emerge every day. But the good news is that new solutions are also emerging every day and what’s available today might look different in the future. 🕢 Thank you to the New Statesman for putting on a great event with many interesting speakers from Minister of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Justin Tomlinson to CEO of The Carbon Trust, Chris Stark 👏 #NSEnergy #Energysecurity

It’s been a great couple of days at Innovation Zero for VPI; there was a real buzz from all the people and businesses focused on getting us to a low-carbon future. 🌍 Jonathan Briggs, who leads our Humber Zero project, spoke on a panel alongside Olivia Powis from the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and others. They discussed what was needed to get carbon capture off the ground in the UK – “We need to remain ambitious if we want to meet the 2030 targets we have set ourselves”, he urged. ⏳ Meanwhile, Ed Miliband spoke to our process engineer Jessica Pidgeon about the readiness of our Humber Zero project 🚀 and its role in job and skills creation in the region. 👩🏫 We all enjoyed meeting various companies, many of which are based in the UK, who are doing interesting and innovative things in energy.💡 #energytransition

If you are heading down to Innovation Zero, come and see us! We are in the Humber Pavilion. And we will be speaking about our CCS project today at 11.30 in the Industrial Forum if you are interested in finding out more 📢

Our first main step up transformer has arrived in Castlelost, Ireland. As you can see it's no mean feat to move! 🚛 🍀

We loved 🧡 hosting Energy UK at our Rye House power station. Its role is evolving as we move through the energy transition but remains important, providing power at those critical times when renewables are unavailable☁ and demand is high 💡. We invest heavily to ensure it is available and reliable when we need it. Thank you to the Energy UK team for all your great questions!

Our CHP plant in Immingham provides critical power and steam to local industry in the Humber region. A planned CCS transport and storage network is being built virtually on our doorstep, as part of the Viking CCS cluster, which has been given Track 2 status by the government. As one of the two anchor emitter projects known as Humber Zero, VPI will be able to provide low carbon power and steam to the industrial region and contribute significantly to the government’s 2030 carbon capture targets. This will help to build the infrastructure needed to get CCS off the ground, unlocking the abatement of power and industry at scale. If you are interested in learning more, you can read about our project in The Times today 👇 : https://lnkd.in/ei2e-7dv