RWE npower plc to build UK’s largest combined cycle power plant

Five-unit turbine plant is designed to produce 2,000 MW, replacing old oil-fired plant in Wales. See photo.

By Control Engineering Staff April 30, 2009

RWE npower plc has awarded a€1 billion contract to Alstom for construction of U.K.’s largest combined-cycle power plant in Pembroke, Wales. The project calls for a full turnkey installation built on the site of an old oil-fired plant, bringing much higher levels of efficiency.

The new plant will include five Alstom GT26 turbines with associated ancillary equipment. With five combined cycle units, it will offer high load flexibility while maintaining low emissions and high efficiency. The plant will be able to be run as efficiently at low load as at full capacity during peak hours, allowing the utility to respond to fluctuating energy demands.

With 40% of the U.K. generating fleet built before 1975, this new plant is an important step in RWE npower’s plan to renew its production sites with new, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly power plants.

This is the second project that RWE npower has signed with Alstom in the U.K., following the Staythorpe plant in 2007. Staythorpe is a gas-fired 1,650 MW power plant, currently under construction in Nottinghamshire. Additional Alstom projects in the UK include Centrica’s Langage and E.On’s Grain power plants. When all these projects are online, the four will add close to 6,000 MW of new electrical power to the U.K. grid.

Alstom says the Pembroke plant will use five KA26-1 single-shaft combined-cycle power blocks, each consisting of one GT26 gas turbine, one triple-pressure heat recovery steam generator, one compact reheat type STF30C steam turbine, one Topgas (hydrogen-cooled) generator and the Alspa Plant Control System. Worldwide, 85 of Alstom’s GT24 and GT26 units are in commercial operation and have accumulated over 3 million hours of operating time.

For another recent power project, read: Utilities capitalize on versatile hybrid, conventional, solar plants .

-Edited by Peter Welander, process industries editor, PWelander@cfemedia.com .Control Engineering News Desk Register here to select your choice of free eNewsletters.