© Supplied by NZT Power Infrastructure firm Balfour Beatty has been awarded an £833m contract to act as a construction partner for the Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) project.
The project, which is currently under construction in Teesside, Northeast England, is expected to become the world’s first gas-fired power station with a carbon capture and storage (CCS) component to handle its CO2 emissions.
The construction partner contract was awarded by Technip Energies – which leads a consortium comprising GE Vernova and Balfour Beatty, with support from technology partner Shell Catalysts & Technologies.
The consortium was given full notice to proceed with the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) package for the onshore power, capture and compression component of the NZT Power project in December 2024.
This coincided with a final investment decision (FID) being taken on NZT Power, which is being developed by BP and Equinor.
Northern Endurance Partnership
An FID was also taken at the same time on the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a joint venture between Equinor, BP and TotalEnergies.
The NEP will provide infrastructure to gather, transport and store captured CO2 offshore beneath the North Sea to the East Coast Cluster (ECC), one of the UK’s first CCS hubs, which is being developed with support from the government.
The award of the contract to Balfour Beatty thus comes as no surprise but illustrates that work on the NZT Power project is proceeding as expected.
It also provides further clarity on the construction requirements of the project and on Balfour Beatty’s role within the consortium.
© Supplied by Northern Endurance PBalfour Beatty said it would work alongside Technip and GE Vernova, with support from Shell, to build the large-scale combined cycle gas-powered generation plant for NZT Power.
It will also build the post combustion carbon capture system, which is expected to capture up to 2m tonnes/year of CO2 for compression and transport offshore by pipeline for storage by the NEP.
Teesside’s NZT Power
Once complete, the NZT Power plant will have the capacity to generate up to 742 MW of flexible, dispatchable low-carbon power.
In its announcement, Balfour Beatty said it would bring its “deep domain knowledge and unique, end-to-end multidisciplinary capabilities” to help deliver the project. This includes the company’s expertise in major civil engineering, ground engineering and power transmission and distribution, as well as its industrial mechanical and electrical background, it added.
“Net Zero Teesside Power is an ambitious scheme, forging the path towards the sustainable infrastructure of the future and positioning the UK as a leader in cleaner, greener energy consumption,” said Balfour Beatty’s group CEO, Leo Quinn.
© Supplied by BP“The scheme will not only be a critical driver in achieving net zero but will also play a key role in boosting regional economic growth in the Northeast of England; generating thousands of employment opportunities both in the immediate term and in the future.”
The full value of the contract is due to go into Balfour Beatty’s order book by the end of the second quarter of 2025, with main construction expected to begin later this year and completion targeted for 2028.
At peak construction, Balfour Beatty anticipates employing around 1,500 people at the site.
The award of the contract to Balfour Beatty follows various other contracts related to the construction of NZT Power and the NEP infrastructure being handed out in recent weeks.
This includes the selection of Worley Consulting to continue delivering lender’s technical advisor (LTA) services to the NEP.
Meanwhile, Expro was awarded a contract earlier in June to carry out well testing within the Endurance reservoir, which is set to store the CO2 captured at NZT Power and other projects within the ECC that will be served by the NEP.
