U.K. Gets First New Gas-Fired Plant in Three Years

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Carrington Power Station has become the first large-scale gas-fired power plant to be opened in the U.K. since 2013.

Located near Manchester, the 880-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant began full-scale electricity generation last week and can generate enough electricity to power around 1 million homes. Owned by Ireland's state-owned Electricity Supply Board (ESB) (Dublin), the company said: "Carrington Power Station is the first large-scale gas-fired power plant to come online in Great Britain since 2013. As well as providing 880 MW of reliable baseload electricity, Carrington Power Station will be one of the most flexible plants providing fast back-up to intermittent wind and solar generation when it is needed most."

Planning permission for the power station was granted in 2008, with construction starting in 2013. The plant has already secured a contract under the government's Contract for Difference scheme to provide power at short notice for the winter of 2019-20.

The plant uses two Alstom GT26 gas turbines, two horizontal triple-pressure heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), two TOPGAS hydrogen-cooled turbo generators and two STF15C steam turbines. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract was awarded to an Alstom-led consortium called Alstom Duro Felguera, in a deal worth 640 million euro ($715 million).

Gas is set to play a greater role in the U.K.'s electricity sector in the coming decades following the accelerated closure of older coal-fired plants over the last year and the planned closure of all its old nuclear power plants in the near-future. The government has also pledged to close all unabated coal-fired power plants within a decade. For additional information, see November 23, 2015, article - U.K. Calls Time on Coal-Fired Power.

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