Corby Power Station is a 350 MWe gas-fired power station on Mitchell Road off Phoenix Parkway (A6116) in the north-east of Corby

Corby

Corby Town is a town and borough located in the county of Northamptonshire. Corby Town is 23 miles north-east of the county town, Northampton. The borough had a population of 53,174 at the 2001 Census; the town on its own accounted for 49,222 of this figure...

 in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

. It is near (to the west of) the Rockingham racetrack

Rockingham Motor Speedway

Rockingham is the UK's most modern motorsport venue and Europe's fastest racing circuit, hosting corporate driving days, driver training, conferencing & exhibitions, vehicle manufacturing events, track days, testing, driving experiences and motorsport...

.

History

The station was originally owned by East Midlands Electricity

East Midlands Electricity

The East Midlands Electricity Board was formed in 1947, one of the 12 area electricity boards specified under the Electricity Act 1947.-Supply area:...

, with smaller shares owned by Hawker Siddeley and ESB International

Electricity Supply Board

The Electricity Supply Board , is a semi-state electricity company in Ireland. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concern in a liberalised and competitive market...

 (the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

's national electricity company), under the name Corby Power Ltd. It was constructed by Hawker Siddeley Power Engineering, Ewbank Preece (became part of Mott MacDonald

Mott MacDonald

The Mott MacDonald Group is an employee-owned company management, engineering and development consultancy serving the public and private sectors world-wide...

 in 1994), and Kier

Kier Group

Kier Group plc is a construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, public and private housebuilding, land development and the Private Finance Initiative...

. It opened in February 1994.

In September 2000, East Midlands Electricity (owned by the American Dominion Resources

Dominion Resources

Dominion Resources Inc. , commonly referred to as Dominion, is a power and energy company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia that supplies electricity in parts of Virginia and North Carolina and supplies natural gas to parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and eastern North Carolina...

) sold off its 80% stake of the power station to Powergen. ESB owned the other 20%. Powergen became E.ON UK

E.ON UK

E.ON UK is an energy company in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of E.ON, the world's largest investor-owned power and gas company. As Powergen, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but since 1 July 2002 has been owned by E.ON AG of...

 in 2004. In October 2000, the ownership changed to 50% Powergen and 50% ESB International.

ESB acquired in May 2011 EON's share of the station becoming the single owner of the plant.

Operations

The power station is a combined cycle power plant

Combined cycle

In electric power generation a combined cycle is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem off the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy, which in turn usually drives electrical generators...

. It has two 119 megawatt

Watt

The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...

 (MW) General Electric

General Electric

General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

 Frame 9 (9001E) gas turbine

Gas turbine

A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....

s produced by EGT. Each has a Babcock Energy

Doosan Babcock

Doosan Babcock, is part of Doosan Power Systems Ltd a UK-based subsidiary of Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction. DPS is a power sector utility boiler OEM and after market services company, offering specialist services and technologies to clients in the nuclear power generation, fossil-fired...

 heat recovery steam generator. These lead onto one 114 MW steam turbine

Steam turbine

A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....

. The station's generators were built by Brush

Hawker Siddeley Switchgear

Hawker Siddeley Switchgear is a British manufacturer of electrical switchgear and overhead line equipment, the company operates a wholly owned subsidiary in Australia....

.

External links

• Other CCGTs in eastern England
• http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/362459
• http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/378042