JEP Reports available on request

This report is a JEP update on water use at thermal power plants, last issued in 2019 and covering the period 2008 to 2018. The 2019 to 2024 data set reflects the changing UK electricity generation landscape as hard coal- and oil-fired power stations have closed. Accordingly, this update provides water-use data only for biomass plants and natural gas-fired CCGTs. Some category-level water-use statistics for 2019 to 2024 are of a similar order to those reported previously, although differences in site type and coverage limit a direct comparison. Biomass plants have a higher specific water use for both the tower and dry-cooled sites than the equivalent CCGT cooling options. 
It is possible to infer the water used for process and cooling operations from the survey returns. Process use at biomass plant is about three times higher per unit of generation than for a CCGT, reflecting the additional water use at a solid fuel power plant with 100% generation from the steam cycle.

This tracker provides an overview of planning and water use information from the Planning Inspectorate (PINS), the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales websites and local authority portals for key information on projects relevant to the energy sector. Primarily hydrogen, Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) and other decarbonisation projects.

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This document summarises the methodology adopted by the power industry for reporting, to the Emissions Trading Scheme, the residual CO2 emissions to air from a carbon capture plant at a CCGT installation. These emissions are determined using the prescribed mass balance approach: Emitted CO2 = Input CO2 - Transferred CO2. The uncertainty of the Emitted CO2 is considered in some detail although this does not need to be assessed directly. A direct flue gas measurement approach can also be considered by operators as and when this option is considered to be demonstrated and available. 

Production of low carbon hydrogen is essential for the UK to achieve its decarbonisation goals. This study provides quantification of the potential range of water volumes required for the production of ‘blue hydrogen’ (ATR and SMR with CCS) and ‘green hydrogen’ (PEM and alkaline electrolysis). 

This Protocol specifies the monitoring, reporting and compliance requirements for combustion plant installations with aggregated thermal input of > 50MWth.  The content has been agreed with the UK Competent Authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with regard to their differing legal and regulatory positions.

This study provides an updated review on the gross water usage and water consumption of gas-fired power plants fitted with carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology as well as bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plants.  The focus is on two main metrics: cooling water abstracted per unit of power generated and cooling water abstracted per unit of CO2 captured. Once through cooling and hybrid or wet cooling towers are considered as cooling options.

The study is aimed at illustrating the potential development and uncertainty of power sector future gross water usage and consumption (for electricity generation and hydrogen production) in the period to 2050. It extends the previous JEP report ENV/675/2021 to account for the Future Energy Scenarios released by National Grid ESO in the summer of 2021. 

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This document brings together a review of the approaches that are guiding the direction of water resource planning and licensing in England and Wales with a view to establishing key sector principles and positions to assist JEP and Energy UK participants within the planning process, and which can be shared with regulators and other abstractors. The content of this document reflects the engagement and issues as of late 2019 to early 2020, and therefore predates some more recent publications such as the 2020 National Framework for Water Resources publication.​

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Water Use at thermal power plant 
UTG/19/PMP/486/R    Energy UK website    This report forms part of the JEP package of information on water uses in power plant. It provides a compilation of recent actual water use data, as measured at UK power plant. It discusses the many factors applying at sector and individual installation level which lead to the range of water use occurring. In particular it takes into account how the changes in regulating electricity markets may influence the way thermal plant are used in future with implications for the water-energy nexus.    

The aim of this Protocol is to provide a clear and consistent approach for project specific modelling studies. It has been developed in consultation with the EA and NRW.     

The JEP has previously undertaken assessments of the regional scale water requirements of the power sector (electricity generation and hydrogen production). This update report uses the latest NESO Future Energy Scenarios 2025 (FES25). The report also compares the latest GB scale predicted freshwater consumption with the last externally published FES21 modelling. H2 production and hence water needs increase from 2030s onwards. The pathways that achieve Net Zero require more freshwater than those that do not. 
In general, the range of FES25 future freshwater consumptions are reduced from FES21; the 2050 highest median freshwater consumption is 32% lower at the GB scale with the primary cause being the lower assumed SMR-based hydrogen production in FES25. Changes at the regional scale are greater; those regions with relatively few sites identified for energy production being particularly sensitive to differences in the number and type of sites available to satisfy the scenario demand.

Projections for the impacts of climate change on future thermal conditions in waterbodies are not a product delivered by UKCP18 climate projections. To bridge this gap, this report presents a statistical methodology in which UKCP18 projections for ambient air temperature are used to infer ambient water temperature, thereby enabling the integration of climate change effects into the modelling of thermal impacts from power station cooling water discharges.  This enables robust estimation of extreme temperature values – such as the 98th percentile – that are particularly relevant for regulatory compliance.  
Validation against a Tilbury case study in the Thames Estuary confirms that the proposed approach is both accurate and robust, providing a defensible and practical foundation to support the consenting process. 

This document outlines the methodology agreed by the major electricity generators in Great Britain; RWE Generation UK, Drax Power Ltd, SSE, West Burton Energy, VPI Power Ltd, EPUKi and Uniper UK, in response to their Environmental Permit or Pollution Prevention & Control permit requirements regarding the Pollution Inventory, Pollutant Release and Transfer Register or Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory for the year ending 31 December 2025. 

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This Protocol specifies the monitoring, reporting and compliance requirements for combustion plant installations with aggregated thermal input of > 50MWth.  The content has been agreed with the UK Competent Authorities in England, Wales and Scotland, with regard to their differing legal and regulatory positions.

This report sets out the potential monetary impacts associated with any restrictions on abstraction licences for new or existing power plant.   This aspect sits alongside  broader security of supply and environmental considerations and Energy UK were invited by EA to provide this input as part of River Basin Management Plans 3. 

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This report provides estimates of the potential development and uncertainty of power sector future gross water usage and consumption (for electricity generation and hydrogen production) in the period to 2050 within each of the water resource regions presently used in UK water resource planning initiatives. It is designed to be read in conjunction with the JEP report ENV/675/2021  which illustrates the modelling approach used. 

The study is aimed at illustrating and applying the methodological approach developed by JEP to assess the potential development and uncertainty of power sector future water gross water usage and consumption (for electricity generation and hydrogen production) in the period to 2050. It relies on energy scenarios released by National Grid ESO and the Climate Change Committee.  This study is focused on water use at GB scale and in the ‘East of England’. 

During a black start event, power generation plants would be under the instruction of National Grid and would be required to operate to enable other plants to start. This instruction could foreseeably result in a plant operating in a manner which could breach permit conditions (for normal operation in terms of emission limit values or annual operating hour caps). In order to avoid this situation, operators have requested derogations in the permit conditions to apply when operating under a black start instruction. An assessment of the potential air quality impacts associated with such operation (for a short duration and an extended duration black start period) has been carried out for a range of different power station types to allow an informed consideration of the above issue by the environmental regulators.

This report documents earlier activities undertaken in 2012 by JEP to model future water uses by thermal power stations. The original approach has then been extended (and superseded) by most recent JEP activities (see JEP report ENV/675/2021). 

This report reviews currently available information regarding hydrogen NOx emissions performance and considers potential approaches for emission regulation, using Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGTs) firing natural gas as a comparator. An air dispersion modelling study has been undertaken to compare potential air quality impacts relating to natural gas and hydrogen and a high-level cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has been undertaken