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Plans to build a new £90 million gas-fired power station in Swansea have been given the go-ahead.

The application for Abergelli Power Station, submitted by Drax Group Plc, was referred to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for the final decision.

The decision to approve the plans was announced on Thursday and could mean the new plant, which will be built on land at Abergelli Farm, south of Felindre, is up and running by 2022.

Once operational, the 299MW Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) power station will generate backup energy for the National Grid if renewable sources fail.

Proposals for the power station were first mooted in 2014 but the project was sidelined in 2015 due to market uncertainty. Abergelli Power Limited (APL), a subsidiary business of Drax Group, revived the plans last year and submitted their application for consideration in May 2018.

The local community was given the opportunity to participate in a six-month consultation of the plans.

The power station is expected to run for up to an average of 1,500 hours a year and supply around 150,000 homes.

Andy Koss, from Drax said: "Securing this approval from the Secretary of State is a crucial step in ensuring development of the new gas generation the UK needs to provide flexible power and system support services to the electricity grid as part of the country’s transition to a low carbon economy.

"Rapid response gas power stations are agile enough to ramp up quickly and support the grid at times of peak demand, making them highly complementary to intermittent renewable sources of power, like wind and solar.

"Flexible, reliable power stations like this are essential to provide the power Britain’s homes, businesses, transport and infrastructure need.”