Connah's Quay Power Station
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with the nearby Deeside Power StationDeeside Power StationDeeside Power Station is a 498 MWe gas-fired power on Weighbridge Road, near the A548, on the Deeside Industrial Park to the north of Connah's Quay in Flintshire, north Wales. It is north of the River Dee.-History:...
Connah's Quay Power Station is a 1,420 MW gas-fired power station to the west 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...
in north Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
. It is next to the A548, being tightly situated between the road and the south bank of 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....
.
History
The current station is built on the site of a coal-fired power stationFossil fuel power plant
A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...
. The station was opened on the 16 September 1954 by Lord Citrine, the chairman of the British Electricity Authority
British Electricity Authority
The British Electricity Authority was established in 1948 with the nationalisation of the Great Britain's electricity supply industry. It was created by means of the Electricity Act 1947...
. The station was originally planned to only be of 60 megawatts (MW), but it was realised that a larger station would be needed. The coal-fired station was built in three stages, each stage having two 30 MW generating sets, giving a total generating capacity of 180 MW. The stages were completed in 1953, 1955 and 1957. The station was closed in 1984 and demolished in 1992.
Construction of the new gas-fired station began in July 1993. The station was built by GEC Alsthom
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...
and Henry Boot Construction, with design by Atlantic Projects. In 1999, Henry Boot Construction sued Alstom for breach of contract
Breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....
. The station was completed in March 1996 and cost £580m. It was officially opened by Margaret Beckett
Margaret Beckett
Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...
on 4 July 1997. In June 1998, the station's visitor centre opened. The station was initially owned by Powergen, who became 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...
in 2004. The station is currently E.ON UK's largest CCGT power station.
The power station is not to be confused with the Deeside Power Station
Deeside Power Station
Deeside Power Station is a 498 MWe gas-fired power on Weighbridge Road, near the A548, on the Deeside Industrial Park to the north of Connah's Quay in Flintshire, north Wales. It is north of the River Dee.-History:...
, a similar CCGT power station with two chimneys situated on the north bank of the River Dee, one mile to the east of the Connah's Quay station. The two plants are separated by the 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...
, with many electricity pylons running alongside.
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 that runs on natural gas. It is made up of four 330 MW modules - hence the four chimneys. Each module has a General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
Frame 9FA 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....
, a Stein Industrie heat recovery steam generator and a 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....
; in a single-shaft layout. The gas comes from an eighteen mile pipeline from the Point of Ayr
Point of Ayr
Point of Ayr is the northernmost point of mainland Wales. It is situated immediately to the north of Talacre in Flintshire, at the mouth of the Dee estuary. It is to the southwest of the Liverpool Bay area of the Irish Sea...
refinery, where gas comes from BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...
's (originally owned by Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
-based Hamilton Oil) Celtic gas fields (Hamilton and Hamilton North) in Liverpool Bay
Liverpool Bay
Liverpool Bay is a bay of the Irish Sea between northeast Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside to the east of the Irish Sea. The bay is a classic example of a region of freshwater influence...
via the Douglas Complex
Douglas Complex
The Douglas Complex is a high system of three linked platforms in the Irish Sea, off the North Wales coast. The Douglas oil field was discovered in 1990, and production commenced in 1996...
. The station opened soon after the gas from the field was first produced. The station employs around 81 people.