Irish energy firm ESB has opened its new 884MW gas fired power station at Carrington near Manchester.

The €820m development is providing 40 permanent jobs on site and is powering more than one million homes and businesses in the Greater Manchester area.

Following three years of construction, the plant became fully operational in September 2016. Carrington Power Station is one of the most efficient thermal plants in the UK at 58 per cent efficiency and generates four times more electricity than the coal plant formerly located on the site. Carrington is the first new large scale high efficiency gas plant to come onto the British electricity grid since 2013.

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As well as providing 884MW of reliable base load electricity, Carrington Power Station will be one of the most flexible plants providing fast back-up when it is needed most to intermittent wind and solar generation.

Ellvena Graham, Chairman of ESB, said: "Carrington Power Station is a significant expansion in ESB’s operations in Great Britain and builds on our 25 year record of successful investments in the UK. Producing enough electricity to power over one million homes and businesses, this new power station comes into operation at a time when efficient, reliable and flexible power plants such as Carrington are increasingly needed to ensure security of electricity supplies into the future."