Deeside Power Station
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with the nearby Connah's Quay Power StationConnah's Quay Power StationConnah's Quay Power Station is a 1,420 MW gas-fired power station to the west of Connah's Quay in Flintshire in north Wales. It is next to the A548, being tightly situated between the road and the south bank of the River Dee.-History:...
Deeside Power Station is a 498 MWe gas-fired power station on Weighbridge Road, near the A548, on the Deeside Industrial Park to the north of Connah's Quay
Connah's Quay
Connah's Quay is the largest town in Flintshire, North Wales, lying on the River Dee, near the border with England. It can be accessed by road from the A550, by rail from the nearby Shotton station and also lies on the National Cycle Network Route 5. It is situated near the region's industrial...
in Flintshire
Flintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...
, north Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. It is north of the River Dee.
History
It is sited on land of a former British SteelBritish Steel
British Steel was a major British steel producer. It originated as a nationalised industry, the British Steel Corporation , formed in 1967. This was converted to a public limited company, British Steel PLC, and privatised in 1988. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...
steelworks, and was commissioned in November 1994, costing £200 million. It was built by Alstom
Alstom
Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...
for National Power
National Power
- History :National Power was formed following the privatisation of the UK electricity market in 1990. In England and Wales the Central Electricity Generating Board, which was responsible for the generation and transmission of electricity was split into three generating companies Powergen, National...
. It is now owned by International Power
International Power
International Power PLC is an international electricity generator formed in 2000 by the demerger of National Power. It is headquartered at Senator House, 85 Queen Victoria Street in the City of London...
, the new-formed company of National Power in 2001. In April 2002, 250 MW of power was mothballed, when the price of electricity dropped. The station resumed full power in October 2003.
It is not to be confused with the nearby 1,420 MW Connah's Quay Power Station
Connah's Quay Power Station
Connah's Quay Power Station is a 1,420 MW gas-fired power station to the west of Connah's Quay in Flintshire in north Wales. It is next to the A548, being tightly situated between the road and the south bank of the River Dee.-History:...
owned by 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...
, which has four chimneys and is a mile to the west, also next to the A548, but on the south side of the River Dee. The power stations are separated by the impressive Flintshire Bridge
Flintshire Bridge
The Flintshire Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge spanning the Dee Estuary in North Wales. The bridge links Flint and Connah's Quay to the north shore of the River Dee. The bridge cost £55million to construct...
(built in 1997).
Specification
It is a CCGTCombined 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...
-type power station which runs on natural gas. There are two 166 MWe Alstom GT13E2 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, from which the exhaust gas at 525 °C enters two heat recovery steam generators. The steam from these powers one 176 MWe 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 terminal voltage on the ABB generators is 16 kV, and this electricity enters the National Grid, via a transformer
Transformer
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...
, at 400 kV. It has a thermal efficiency
Thermal efficiency
In thermodynamics, the thermal efficiency is a dimensionless performance measure of a device that uses thermal energy, such as an internal combustion engine, a boiler, a furnace, or a refrigerator for example.-Overview:...
of 53%. Cooling water for the condenser is taken from the River Dee
River Dee, Wales
The River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....
. The cooling tower
Cooling tower
Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to the atmosphere. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or in the case of closed circuit dry cooling towers rely...
s are made by Balcke Duerr of Ratingen
Ratingen
Ratingen is a town in the district of Mettmann, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the northwestern part of Berg - about 12 km northeast of Düsseldorf...
, Germany. The plant has two chimneys.