Rye House power station

Rye House power station

Rye House Power Station
Country England
Location Hertfordshire, East of England
Coordinates 51°45′45″N 0°00′39″E / 51.762466°N 0.01077°E / 51.762466; 0.01077Coordinates: 51°45′45″N 0°00′39″E / 51.762466°N 0.01077°E / 51.762466; 0.01077
Status Operational
Construction began Early 1990s
Commission date November 1993
Operator(s) ScottishPower
Thermal power station
Primary fuel Natural gas-fired
Tertiary fuel Coal-fired
Power generation
Nameplate capacity 715 MW
grid reference TL387090

Rye House Power Station is a 715 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station close to Rye House railway station in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.[1]

History

The current station was built on the site of an earlier coal-fired power station built in 1953 to a design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. It was closed on 1 November 1982 and had a generating capacity of 120 MW.[2]

The gas-fired station, near Hoddesdon, is about eighteen miles north of London, was built in the early 1990s and fully commissioned in November 1993 and officially opened in April 1994. Output from the station is enough to meet the daily power needs of nearly a million people - almost the population of Hertfordshire.

Rye House operates as part of ScottishPower's UK Energy Wholesale,.[3] It was acquired by ScottishPower from Powergen in January 2001 for £217m.[4]

Specification

CCGT stations use a gas turbine along with a steam turbine connected to a heat recovery steam generator to provide the most efficient form of thermal electricity generation. Rye House has three single-shaft Siemens V94.2 gas turbines (generating 150 MW each) rotating at 3000rpm and three Babcock Energy steam generators (receiving exhaust gas at 540C) connected to one 250 MW steam turbine. The plant was built by Siemens. The gas turbines have a terminal voltage of 11 kV and the steam turbine 15.75 kV, connecting to the National Grid at 400 kV. It has the largest air-cooled condenser in Europe. The chimneys are 58 m high. It employs thirty seven people.

Supplemental Balancing Reserve

In October 2014, The station was successful in winning a new contract with the National Grid as a back up energy supply for when there is a shortfall and potential risk of a Nationwide Blackout of Electricity. The contract requires the already successful Two Shifting CCGT to be fully available and fully manned between the months 1 November and 31 March. After that it would be shut down to rest for the other months of the year.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Rye House Power Station
  2. ↑ Mr. Redmond (16 January 1984). "Coal-fired Power Stations". Hansard. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
  3. ↑ Scottish Power-Energy wholesale Retrieved 13 December 2008
  4. ↑ http://www.scottishpower.com/PressReleases_562.htm
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