THE £710m Carrington Power Station is officially open.

ESB officially opened its new gas-fired power station at Carrington on Monday March 13.

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

Officiating at today’s ceremony, Jesse Norman MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, welcomed the commencement of operations.

“This welcome investment by ESB in Carrington is already delivering secure electricity to over a million homes and businesses,” he said.

“New power stations like this complement low carbon wind and solar renewable energy by providing reliable electricity all year round, whatever the weather or time of day. And this investment has created skilled jobs for the area as well."

Following three years of construction, the plant became fully operational in September 2016.

Carrington Power Station generates four times more electricity than the coal plant formerly located on the site.

It is the first new large scale high efficiency gas plant to come onto the British electricity grid since 2013.

Pat O’Doherty, chief executive of ESB, said: "The official opening of the Carrington power station is a great day for ESB. It marks the successful delivery of a major project from our initial plans almost ten years ago through construction and to full commercial operation.

“Carrington is a key part of ESB’s overall strategy to maintain and grow a generation business of scale in today's highly competitive market.”