Grain Power Station
Encyclopedia
Grain Power Station is an oil-fired and CCGT
power station in Kent
, England
with operational capacity of 1,320MW owned by E.ON UK
.
. It was built by the Cleveland Bridge Company
beginning in 1975. It opened in 1979. It is located on the Isle of Grain
, where the River Medway
flows into the Thames Estuary
. The station has the second tallest chimney in the UK, at 244 metres (801 ft), visible from a wide area of North Kent and parts of South Essex
. It adjoins the site of the BP
Kent oil refinery, which closed in 1982. The station burns oil to drive, via steam turbines, two 690MW (gross power output - but 30 MW is used on-site, leaving 660 MW for export to the Grid) alternators. The station is capable of generating enough electricity to supply approximately 2% of Britain's peak electricity needs.
The station was originally designed to have a total capacity of 3,300MW but currently has an operational capacity of 1,320MW. The two remaining oil-fired generating units were mothballed by Powergen in 2002 and 2003, but almost immediately the company began to consider reopening the plant as electricity prices increased rapidly. It is operated by E.ON UK who also operates the nearby Kingsnorth
coal-fired station.
The plant does not meet the emissions requirements of the Large combustion plant directive and must therefore close in 2015.
Terminal, allowing for a reduction in carbon emissions of up to 350,000 tonnes a year.
Construction work on the plant finished in May 2010 at a cost of £580 million, being built by Alstom
. Work had started in May 2007. One of the gas turbines was first fired on 2 June 2010. The overall efficiency is expected to be 72%. It has three GT26 gas turbine
s. It supplies enough electricity for around one million homes, but also 340MW of thermal energy to the nearby natural gas Grain LNG terminal owned by National Grid
. The whole scheme is designed to three Alstom KA26 Single-Shaft Combined Cycle Power Plant Power Blocks; these include a STF30C reheat steam turbine
, a heat recovery steam generator and a TOPGAS hydrogen-cooled turbogenerator
each.
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...
power station in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with operational capacity of 1,320MW 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...
.
History
Grain was built on a 250 acres (1 km²) site for the nationalised Central Electricity Generating BoardCEGB
The Central Electricity Generating Board was the cornerstone of the British electricity industry for almost 40 years; from 1957, to privatisation in the 1990s....
. It was built by the Cleveland Bridge Company
Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company is a renowned bridge building and structural engineering company based in Darlington, England. It has been involved in many major projects including the Victoria Falls Bridge and the Humber Bridge.-History:...
beginning in 1975. It opened in 1979. It is located on the Isle of Grain
Isle of Grain
The Isle of Grain, in the north of Kent, England, is the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula. No longer an island, the Isle is almost all marshland and the Grain Marshes are an important habitat for birdlife...
, where the River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
flows into the Thames Estuary
Thames Estuary
The Thames Mouth is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea.It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary, although physically the head of Sea Reach, near Canvey Island on the Essex shore is probably the western boundary...
. The station has the second tallest chimney in the UK, at 244 metres (801 ft), visible from a wide area of North Kent and parts of South Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. It adjoins the site of the BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
Kent oil refinery, which closed in 1982. The station burns oil to drive, via steam turbines, two 690MW (gross power output - but 30 MW is used on-site, leaving 660 MW for export to the Grid) alternators. The station is capable of generating enough electricity to supply approximately 2% of Britain's peak electricity needs.
The station was originally designed to have a total capacity of 3,300MW but currently has an operational capacity of 1,320MW. The two remaining oil-fired generating units were mothballed by Powergen in 2002 and 2003, but almost immediately the company began to consider reopening the plant as electricity prices increased rapidly. It is operated by E.ON UK who also operates the nearby Kingsnorth
Kingsnorth power station
Kingsnorth is a dual-fired coal and oil power station on the Hoo Peninsula at Medway in Kent, South East England. The four-unit station is owned and operated by energy firm E.ON UK, and has a generating capacity of 1,940 megawatts. It is capable of operating on either coal or oil though in practice...
coal-fired station.
The plant does not meet the emissions requirements of the Large combustion plant directive and must therefore close in 2015.
Grain CHP gas plant
A new 1,275MW plant consisting of three natural gas-fired units capable of generating enough electricity to supply around one million homes is being constructed on the site at a cost of £500m and is due to be completed in 2010. The power station will also be able to transfer up to 340MW of heat energy recovered from the steam condensation to run the vaporisers in the nearby Liquefied natural gasLiquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas that has been converted temporarily to liquid form for ease of storage or transport....
Terminal, allowing for a reduction in carbon emissions of up to 350,000 tonnes a year.
Construction work on the plant finished in May 2010 at a cost of £580 million, being 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...
. Work had started in May 2007. One of the gas turbines was first fired on 2 June 2010. The overall efficiency is expected to be 72%. It has three GT26 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. It supplies enough electricity for around one million homes, but also 340MW of thermal energy to the nearby natural gas Grain LNG terminal owned by National Grid
National Grid plc
National Grid plc is a multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom and northeastern United States and it is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world.National Grid is listed on...
. The whole scheme is designed to three Alstom KA26 Single-Shaft Combined Cycle Power Plant Power Blocks; these include a STF30C reheat 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....
, a heat recovery steam generator and a TOPGAS hydrogen-cooled turbogenerator
Hydrogen-cooled turbogenerator
A hydrogen-cooled turbo generator is a turbo generator with gaseous hydrogen as a coolant. Hydrogen-cooled turbo generators are designed to provide a low-drag atmosphere and cooling for single-shaft and combined-cycle applications in combination with steam turbines...
each.
External links
News items
- 2002 Mothballing plan
- 2003 Reopening
- Gas-fired station
- Gas power station proposal in December 2005
- Go-ahead for gas power station in November 2006