The Anonymous Widower

Centrica Buys Severn Gas Power Station In South Wales

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.

This is the sub-heading.

The owner of British Gas says the plant, acquired from the troubled Calon Energy for £370 million, will help secure supplies during the green transition

These three introductory paragraphs add more details to the story.

The owner of British Gas has acquired the troubled Severn gas power station in south Wales for £370 million after issuing a less than positive future profit guidance.

The combined-cycle gas turbine plant was owned by Calon Energy, which had gone into administration shortly after the start of the pandemic in 2020 when the power station was, for a while, mothballed.

Centrica said it acquired the plant to shore up its energy generation resources and secure electricity supplies during the UK’s green transition.

I think there a lot more to this story, than initially meets the eye.

The Location

The Google Map shows the location of the Severn Power station on the River Usk, to the South of Newport in South Wales.

Note.

1. Severn power station is indicated by the red arrow in the South-West of the map.
2. The River Usk enters the sea to the West of the site.
3. The RSPB Newport Wetlandsare South of the site.
4. The long rectangle in the middle of the map is the former Llanwern steelworks, which is now a CAF train factory.
5. Newport is also a major station on the main line between London Paddington and Cardiff.

This second Google Map shows the power station site at a larger scale.

I wouldn’t be surprised, that Centrica could fit other equipment on and around the power station site.

• Centrica and/or National Grid might want to put an interconnector across the Severn Estuary.
• There might be a need to connect to wind farms in the Severn Estuary.
• Centrica are building a bunkering facility for ships running on low carbon fuels at Grain LNG Terminal. Will they build one here?
• Centrica could build a HiiROC electrolyser to create hydrogen for difficult to decarbonise industries and bunkering ships.

The site has a lot of potential.

May 8, 2026 - Posted by AnonW | Energy, Energy Storage, Environment, Hydrogen | Bunkering, CAF, Cardiff Central Station, Grain LNG Terminal, Highview Power, HiiROC, Hinckley Point C Nuclear Power Station, Llanwern Steelworks, Newport, Newport (South Wales) Station, River Usk, RSPB, Severn Estuary, Severn Power Station, South Wales, South Wales Main Line