Electricity giant RWE npower is to build a £600 million gas power station. The company will press ahead with plans to construct the new combined cycle gas turbine plant at Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire. Chief executive Andy Duff said: “With a quarter of UK power plants due for closure over the next 10 years it is vital that generators commit to the construction of large scale plants to ensure the UK has a secure, affordable electricity supply into the future.  “Staythorpe will be a modern, highly efficient plant and will produce less than half the Co2 per unit of electricity than an existing coal station.” Staythorpe Power Station received planning consent in 1993 and initial construction began five years later but was put on hold in 2000 because there were enough power stations to meet the UK’s electricity demand. The new power station will have four generating units with the combined ability to generate enough power for almost two million homes. Construction is expected to start later this year and the first unit should be operational by 2010. RWE npower is the UK’s largest electricity supplier with about 6.8 million customers.