In line with its development as an integrated electricity player, TotalEnergies signed an agreement with EIG, an institutional investor in the global energy sector, for the acquisition of all the shares of West Burton Energy for an enterprise value of £450 million.
TotalEnergies’s acquisition of West Burton Energy has been selected by a panel of local industry professionals to be the winner of the CoStar Impact Awards' Sale/Acquisition of the Year for the East Midlands.
The West Burton B gas-fired power plant in Nottinghamshire had a 49-megawatt battery storage system added to it in 2018.
This acquisition rounds out TotalEnergies’ renewable power-generation capacity in the UK with a flexible asset to enable the supply of firm power to customers. Given the size of the company’s renewable portfolio in the country, which stands at 1.1 gigawatts of gross installed capacity and 4.5 gigawatts under development, TotalEnergies has assessed its need for gas-based power generation capacity at 700 megawatts.
To reach this target, the company plans to divest 50% of acquired assets. The deal will also allow TotalEnergies to strengthen its trading capabilities in the country’s electricity and gas markets, as well as its ability to provide increasingly affordable, available and sustainable energy to its 300,000 UK electricity and gas customer sites. The firm said it intends to supply the plant by leveraging its positions in natural-gas production in the UK, where it operates 30% of the projects.
About the project:
West Burton B comprises three combined-cycle gas turbines with total output of 1.3 gigawatts. Commissioned in 2013, it is one of the UK’s most advanced power plants and supplies approximately 1.8 million homes. WBE is developing two other projects, the 1-gigawatt-per-hour West Burton C, adjacent to West Burton B, and the 2.9-gigawatt-per-hour Thorpe Marsh battery-energy storage project in Yorkshire. These are expected to come online in 2026 or 2027.
What the judges said:
Katie Parsons, director, RCA Regeneration, said: “This [project] is another great step forward for increasing the UK's sustainable power generation”, and Grant Butterworth, head of planning, Leicester City Council, added “this deal has secured the future potential of the type of facility critical to energy supply resilience and development”.
They made it happen:
Richard Jones, partner, White & Case; and Stéphane Michel, director general, gas, renewables and power, TotalEnergies.