Last week, E.ON said it would defer an investment decision to build a coal plant in Kingsnorth in Kent for up to three years, casting doubts on the competition deadline of 2014.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has reassured the company of the status of the competition, aimed at having a commercial scale CCS system up and running in Britain by 2014, ScottishPower, a unit of Spain’s Iberdrola, said.
ScottishPower’s consortium, including Shell UK and National Grid, is competing against groups led by E.ON as well as another, led by Germany’s RWE npower.
“With the USA, Canada and China catching up, it’s vital we continue in the race,” Nick Horler, ScottishPower chief executive, said.
On Monday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the United States, the world’s second biggest coal producer and consumer, could have 10 demonstration plants by 2016 and the technology must be ready for global deployment by 2017-2019.
E.ON UK said it was still vying for funding in the competition, though it said it needed to talk to the DECC.
The government is to provide around £1bn. It will pick two groups and finance a feasibility study.
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