The station was handed over to the owner RWE Generation UK from Alstom Power with full commercial operation being achieved in December 2010.

[5] The 16 coal-fired Babcock and Wilcox CTM Highhead spreader stoker boilers produced a maximum of 480 kg/s of steam delivered to the turbines at 62.1 bar and 482 °C.

Staythorpe B power station was supplied with coal via a branch off the adjacent Nottingham and Lincoln railway line.

Rail facilities included a west-facing junction on the mainline, eleven sidings, a coal hopper, a locomotive shed and a run-round loop.

[16] Planning permission was given for the gas-fired power station as early as 1993, and construction originally began in 1998 by the previous owner National Power, temporarily ceasing in 2000 due to market saturation and low returns on electricity generation (high gas costs versus low electricity prices).

Construction restarted in early 2008, after RWE decided to proceed with Staythorpe in May 2007 in preference to development at an alternate site at Pembroke Power Station in Wales.

[17][18][19][20] Staythorpe is a CCGT power station that runs primarily on natural gas, but has the theoretical (not commissioned) option to switch to (distillate) light fuel oil.