Finning UK & Ireland, the world’s largest dealer of Cat® power solutions, is supporting Mercia Power Response with over 100 reciprocating gas-powered generators that feed directly into the national grid, enabling the use of renewable electricity by covering fluctuations in its supply.
The government’s Net Zero 2050 target is driving a transition to renewable sources like wind and solar power, but the intermittent nature of renewables creates challenges in ensuring a consistent, reliable supply of electricity. This means that flexible, on-demand energy is essential to the energy transition, and one company delivering these flexible power services is Mercia Power Response. It currently owns or operates 275MW on 42 sites, operating gas-fuel generators and battery storage facilities to ensure continuous power supply to local communities.
Daniel Newman-Smith, Customer Account Manager, at Finning UK & Ireland describes the problem Mercia exists to solve: “Mercia is helping to ensure that the UK can move to lower carbon power infrastructure, and that we all still have power when the sun isn’t shining, and the wind isn’t blowing. They need generators that can be called upon as needs change, feeding the required power directly into the local grid and avoiding the need for long warm-up and cool-down times that more traditional methods of balancing the grid require.”
The Mercia Power Response electricity generation facility at Mitchells Industrial Park in Barnsley has the capacity to respond quickly to prevent a ‘lights out’ scenario. Following a longstanding relationship which spans over five years, Finning has supplied over 100 generators to the various sites owned by Mercia Power and provides a long-term repair and maintenance package to offer complete peace of mind.
Graham White, Managing Director at Mercia Power Response, explains why the Cat generators were chosen and how Finning tailored the solution for the site’s particular needs: “The Cat CG170 range of generators have the reliability, quick response and operational flexibility we needed, and the team at Finning was flexible and adaptable to suit our needs. They adjusted the standard Cat product to run more effectively by reducing the system’s operating power loads, and still maintaining the systems electrical efficiency.
“The system can get up to full power in just a couple of minutes, in response to surges in demand or drop-offs in power coming from other sources. This flexible response is essential in managing the transition to a greener grid and it is important that these generators can also run on low carbon alternative fuels including biogas and hydrogen blends.”
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