ETI awards research contract into alternative small-scale thermal and nuclear power generation technologies to Mott MacDonald

01 October 2014

• New research project to identify characteristics of alternative small-scale thermal and nuclear plant power generation technologies


• Seek to capture high level thermal performance characteristics and business-case parameters of small thermal plants


• Project runs in parallel to ETI’s Power Plant Siting Study

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has awarded a contract to Mott MacDonald in support of a new research project, valued at £200K, to identify the characteristics of alternative small-scale thermal and nuclear plant power generation technologies.

The purpose of the project is to capture the high level technical performance characteristics and business-case parameters of small thermal plants, which will be of value to the potential future of the UK’s energy system.

The project, expected to be completed by December 2014, is intended to include small modular reactors, enabling comparison with other small-scale plant, such as those powered by bio-mass. The project outputs will help enable the subsequent contrast of a range of specific technologies.

The project is part of the ETI’s technology strategy development, looking at how to accelerate the development of new energy generation technologies to assist the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy. The project will run in parallel with the recently announced Power Plant Siting Study which examines the impact of siting constraints on new power plant development in England and Wales.

Mike Middleton, ETI’s strategy manager for the project, said: “New nuclear power is expected to play a key role in reducing the UK’s carbon emissions – from an initial 16 gigawatts by 2030 and potentially increasing towards 40 gigawatts by 2050, with some scenarios showing deployment increasing towards a maximum of 75 gigawatts. However, there are potential technical, economic and policy challenges associated with the rollout of new large-scale nuclear power stations now in development.

“One of the key challenges is in the identification of suitable and sufficient nuclear power station sites in England and Wales, and managing the impact on the transmission system of an increasing capacity of a type of plant which traditionally provides inflexible base load electricity. This project will support the identification of what else may be needed, and enable a comparison amongst the range of technologies currently under development.  I am delighted to be working with Mott MacDonald in the development of the project output which will be in the form of a  high level functional requirements specification.”

Mott MacDonald, who are a global management, engineering and development consultancy with extensive and current expertise in power, were awarded the “System Requirements For Alternative Nuclear Technologies” contract following ETI’s open competitive procurement process.

Simon Harrison, Director of Power at Mott MacDonald, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this landmark study. Together with our sub-contractors Rolls-Royce, we will be looking at the opportunities for small nuclear reactors to contribute flexibly to the UK’s energy transformation, and identifying what such reactors would have to deliver in terms of performance, cost and financing requirements to become credible future choices. The work will focus on small nuclear’s potential role in the UK’s wider energy system, including the opportunity for supply to heat networks. It will develop estimates of the size of the small nuclear reactor deployment opportunity in the UK, and build on other work commissioned by the ETI.”