Another day, another gushing Teesworks press release. On 17 October 2024, Teesworks Limited shared some exciting news. A new joint venture “‘will develop the largest private wire network in the UK with a £100 million investment”. Seasoned Teesside watchers will shiver at the prospect of another joint venture involving Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney. The detail isn’t encouraging.
Don’t believe the hype
According to the blurb, “A new company, Steel River Power Limited (SRPL) has been created to build, own, and operate what will become the largest private wire network in the UK and deliver power to occupiers on the giant Teesworks development site, located in the Tees Valley in the North East of England”, Except that SRPL isn’t a new company. The Companies House record shows that it was incorporated on 23 March 2023, with 50% ownership each by Musgrave and Corney. As usual, Musgrave’s address is given as his headquarters at Wynyard Park House, his headquarters on the business park that he built. Corney’s address is his mansion, Southlands, in Eaglescliffe.
Boardroom re-shuffle
Teesworks director Ian Kirk was appointed as a director of SRPL on 26 September 2024. Musgrave resigned as a director on 10 October and was replaced by Benjamin Grunweld of Electricity North West (ENW). The same day. North West Electricity Networks (UK) Limited, a similar entity to ENW, was notified as a person with significant control of SRPL. On 16 October, the day before the Teesworks press release, new shares were issued by SRPL, transferring 50% of the ownership of SRPL from Musgrave and Corney to North West Electricity Networks, creating the joint venture mentioned in the press release. But also, on the same day, a company known as Steel River Energy Limited was also notified as a person with significant control of SRPL.
Steel River Energy Limited
You’d be forgiven if you thought that Steel River Energy Limited (SREL) and Steel River Power Limited (SRPL) were one and the same company, but they’re not. SREL was incorporated on 2 August 2023 with a registered address of Wynyard Park House, and share ownership as follows: Musgrave (45%), Corney (45%), South Tees Development Corporation (STDC) (10%). This may mean that there is 5% public ownership of the new joint venture via the STDC, but this is difficult to ascertain. The three directors of SREL are Musgrave, Corney and Julie Gilhespie, the group chief executive of both the Tees Valley Combined Authority and the STDC, and also a board member of Teesside Freeport.
So what is a private wire network (PWN)?
A PWN is a privately owned electricity network. Many large industrial sites have PWNs. For example, right next door to Teesworks, a company called Sembcorp owns and operates the largest PWN in the UK at the former ICI complex at Wilton. Wilton is part of Teesside Freeport, but it isn’t part of Teesworks. There are no plans at present to incorporate the Wilton PWN into the new one announced on 17 October, unless there is something that Teesworks aren’t telling us. According to their press release, the aim of the new PWN is to “upgrade and expand the existing private electricity distribution network to accommodate the current and future needs of tenants on the Teesworks site”. But, apart from Wilton, there isn’t an existing private electricity distribution network on Teesside.
Power failure
According to the Teesworks website, even prior to the deal announced on 17 October and the build out of the PWN, Teesworks can already offer new tenants both 11Kv and 66Kv connections to the National Grid, with current capacity of up to 400 Mw. 400 Mw is a lot of electricity, the size of a medium-sized power station. But it is unclear where this supply comes from. Teesworks’s own web page regarding this so-called existing PWN offer is very obtuse about this, and any potential new tenants are sure to be disappointed. The web page mentions two companies, neither of which generate electricity. Firstly, Northumbrian Water operates an effluent treatment works at Bran Sands, next to the former Redcar steelworks. They’ve got a solar array on the roof, which supplements the electricity supply needed for their day-to-day operations. Teesworks can’t be referring to this, surely? The other company is BOC, the former British Oxygen Company, which supplies industrial gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and CO2 to local industry. But the one thing that BOC doesn’t supply is electricity, so Teesworks have really got me beat with this one.
Clarification needed
So perhaps Teesworks is talking about the existing PWN at Wilton after all. But Wilton doesn’t have 400 Mw of surplus capacity available either. The generation capacity of the three power stations at Wilton is given below:
So the overall capacity is less than half of the surplus capacity that Ben Houchen and his boosters say is available. Keep in mind that the Wilton PWN has to keep the huge complex lighted, and supply power to numerous power-hungry customers such as the SABIC olefins cracker and Ensus Biomass, to name but two. The PWN has a high capacity connection to the National Grid, dating back to the days of the Teesside Power Station. This was the largest gas-fired power station in Europe, with a capacity of 1875 Mw. But it closed in 2015. However any power drawn via this connection would need to be taken from the National Grid, dimming the lights and closing down the TV sets in Whale Hill, Grangetown and Eston. If it happens during Strictly Come Dancing there’ll be questions in the House of Commons.
Mind the gap
So, until the new PWN is up and running, there’s going to be a paucity of electricity available for new tenants. Fortunately, that problem has been solved by there not being any new tenants, at least not for the foreseeable future. This is a list of potential tenants, and the dates that power will be required:
Potential future customers of the PWN
The target dates will be subject to the usual substantial construction industry schedule-busting. But even Ben Houchen is now talking Teesside down by wondering out loud whether British Steel will go bust, putting the kibosh on the Electric Arc Furnace.
Gigapark
The Gigapark is a proposed battery energy storage system to be developed by a company called Nat Power. Nat Power is not to be confused with the National Grid. I spoke to a Nat Power representative during a public consultation event in July. He confirmed that Nat Power will rely on the new PWN to transmit electricity to and from the Gigapark. The Gigapark will be located at Long Acres on the southern edge of the former Redcar steelworks site. Power will be transferred between the neighbouring Tod Point substation and Grangetown sub-station, about two miles away. Nat Power will have to upgrade the existing high voltage transmission line between Grangetown and Lackenby substations. National Grid will be upgrading the transmission line between Lackenby and Osbaldwick, near York. Nat Power has agreed to make a financial contribution to this. However, it was the inability of National Grid to upgrade the Teesside power network within an acceptable timescale that allegedly spurred the creation of the new Teesworks PWN joint venture. Make this make sense.
Who’s got the power?
So, if we can discount the fictional 400 Mw of power that is supposed to be available right now, we can look to two potential suppliers of power to the PWN.
Potential future suppliers to the PWN
NZT gas-fired power station, a joint venture between BP and Equinor, was given the go-ahead on 4 October. The carbon capture element is expensive science fiction of course, but the power station will be built, although the target date of 2027 is ludicrously optimistic. Denise McGuckin, the chair of the TV ERF project board, has been more realistic about the development of the PWN, and this project has now been delayed from 2026 until 2029. However, there is growing opposition to the TV ERF on environmental grounds, and it’s looking a dubious prospect now.
Where will the PWN be built?
My understanding is that the PWN will mainly be built adjacent to the existing vast network of industrial pipelines that dominates this part of Teesside. In addition to the Wilton complex, Sembcorp manages another ICI industrial legacy, a network connecting the three former ICI sites at North Tees (Seal Sands), Wilton and Billingham. It includes two tunnels under the river Tees. This network is connected to another one built by BOC and British Steel, running south west towards Grangetown for about two miles, parallel to the Middlesbrough to Redcar railway line.
Mapping the PWN
I’ve created a map of the existing National Grid transmission network (which I’ve simplified) and the proposed PWN. Note: My interpretation of the PWN is based on research from Teesworks press releases. As far as I know, an official map isn’t available.
The section between Tod Point substation and Grangetown Substation (immediately east of the Teesworks ‘Dorman Point’ site) will form the core of the PWN. It will connect NZT Power, the Electric Arc Furnace, the Gigapark, EOS, and the Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility. There is an existing high voltage transmission line between Tod Point and Grangetown substations, but the new PWN joint venture may choose not to upgrade this, but to build a new one parallel to it. This may be because they wish to maintain a monopoly supply to Teesworks customers, or it may simply be that National Grid can’t provide a timescale to do this work.
