New Century Energy
 | |
| Type | Public limited company |
| Founded | 1954 |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Oceania, United Kingdom |
| Key People | Lord Charles Gowan, Earl of Axwick (Chairman and CEO) |
| Industry | Electric Utility, Petroleum, Natural Gas |
| Products | Electricity, Petroleum, Natural Gas |
New Century Energy plc, also referred to as New Century Energy or NCE, is one of the United Kingdom’s leading energy companies dealing primarily with nuclear power and renewable energy sources. The company is publicly trade on the Philadelphia Exchange (PHEX) and was founded in 1954 when its parent company, Royal Petroleum, spun off its nuclear energy division.
Contents
Organisation
New Century Nuclear Energy
The company’s largest, and most profitable, division is New Century Nuclear Energy, which runs the company’s 53 nuclear reactors in 28 facilities throughout the United Kingdom. Many of the power stations operate older pressurized water reactors (PWR), of the 53 total reactors, 31 are of the PWR design; however, more recent constructions since the later stages of the 20th century have brought about the construction of new boiling water reactors (BWR) and four formerly experimental pebble bed reactors (PBR.)
- 31 PWR
- 12 BWR
- 4 Advanced Boiling Water reactors (ABWR)
- 2 Economic Simplified Boiling Water reactors (ESBWR)
- 4 PBR
Continuing to expand its nuclear power generation facilities is a stated goal of the company and can be seen with recent contracts awarded by the government of the UK to construct pebble bed modular reactors (PBMR) for new colonial power stations near Kingsland as well as ESBWR units near Atherton in Azazian Sarnia.
New Century Renewable Energy
NCE led the United Kingdom in solar power plant use up until the late 20th century when it sold most of its solar plants as the soaring cost of relatively open and unused land made the properties no longer commercially viable. However, NCE continues to operate four solar plants in the southeastern islands of the Azazian Archipelago. A fifth concentrated solar plant is operated, with some difficulty, in the Verdant Archipelago, which makes use of the high insolation afforded to the Indian Ocean.
Wind power is also used by NCE to provide electricity for its customers and makes use, largely, of offshore wind farms. Owing to the broad expanse of the Home Island’s continental shelf, the construction of offshore wind farms has proven economically viable and NCE operates eleven such facilities off the coasts of the Azazian Archipelago’s eastern islands, where they utilise the moderate, but consistent, winds blowing in from the northeast throughout much of the year.
Although NCE does not operate any hydroelectric facilities, the company is investigating the potential of tidal streams and will complete its first tidal stream plant (150MW) off the southern coast of New Britain in late 2007.
New Century Renaissance Energy
The Renaissance division seeks to cash in on the relatively high profits of oil and natural gas through opening facilities in oil producing regions in both the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Recently, NCE invested opened joint operations with the Joint Stock Oil Company based in Istanbul, Khailfah al Muslimeen. Among the major investments will be the opening of an oil and gas terminal in Vladivostok.
Another area of development for NCE is the return to coal as a viable energy source, owing to its natural abundance. However, rather than simple and cheap coal stations that dump significant quantities of toxic chemicals and pollutants into the air, NCE is investing in coal gasification plants largely near the large coal reserves in the western Home Islands. However, other coal gasification plants are planned for the UK’s colonies in coming years.
Operations
NCE is headquartered in Philadelphia, Oceania and is listed on the Philadelphia Exchange. In large part, however, the company has few facilities located in or near Philadelphia except for the Cerisa Nuclear Generation Station built on an artificial island to the northeast of the city. Owing to the numerous rivers and streams in the United Kingdom most of NCE’s nuclear generation stations make use of water either as PWRs or BWRs (or their derivatives.) Thus, most of NCE’s facilities are to be found along rivers or coasts where ample supplies of water may be obtained.
Currently, however, the company is – like many within the UK – to expand beyond the Home Islands as can be seen in the construction of an ESBWR outside of Providence in Juristan as well as plans for two ESBWR units outside Atherton in Azazian Sarnia. The company is currently in a bidding war with petroleum rival Azazia Petrol and its former parent company Royal Petroleum for control over the gas reserves located offshore in Port Elizabeth and potentially in Guyana Island.
