Rye House Power Station
Encyclopedia
Rye House Power Station is a 715MW combined cycle gas turbine
(CCGT) power station close to Rye House railway station
in Hoddesdon
, Hertfordshire
.
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 megawatts.
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, playing a valuable role in the electricity markets in England and Wales. It was acquired by ScottishPower from Powergen in January 2001 for £217m.
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 150MW each) rotating at 3000rpm
and three Babcock Energy
steam generators (receiving exhaust gas at 540C) connected to one 250MW steam turbine. The plant was built by Siemens
. The gas turbines have a terminal voltage of 11kV and the steam turbine 15.75kV, connecting to the National Grid at 400kV. It has the largest air-cooled condenser in Europe. The chimneys are 58 m high. It employs thirty seven people.
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...
(CCGT) power station close to Rye House railway station
Rye House railway station
Rye House railway station is in the Rye House area of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, England. It is on the Hertford East branch of the West Anglia Main Line, and train services are provided by National Express East Anglia.-Services:...
in Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon is a town in the English county of Hertfordshire, situated in the Lea Valley. The town grew up as a coaching stop on the route between Cambridge and London. It is located southeast of Hertford, north of Waltham Cross and southwest of Bishop's Stortford. At its height during the 18th...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
.
History
The current station was built on the site of an earlier 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...
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 megawatts.
The gas-fired station, near Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon is a town in the English county of Hertfordshire, situated in the Lea Valley. The town grew up as a coaching stop on the route between Cambridge and London. It is located southeast of Hertford, north of Waltham Cross and southwest of Bishop's Stortford. At its height during the 18th...
, is about eighteen miles north of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 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, playing a valuable role in the electricity markets in England and Wales. It was acquired by ScottishPower from Powergen in January 2001 for £217m.
Specification
CCGT stations use a gas turbineGas 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....
along with 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....
connected to a heat recovery steam generator to provide the most efficient form of thermal electricity generation
Electricity generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric energy from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...
. Rye House has three single-shaft Siemens V94.2 gas turbines (generating 150MW each) rotating at 3000rpm
Revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...
and three Babcock Energy
Doosan Group
Doosan Group is a South Korean conglomerate quoted on the Korea Stock Exchange. Doosan has been placed 471st in the Fortune 2009. It has been included in the Forbes Global 2000 companies from 2007. It had recently acquired SKODA power thus making it a full swing in power plant global competitors...
steam generators (receiving exhaust gas at 540C) connected to one 250MW steam turbine. The plant was built by Siemens
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
. The gas turbines have a terminal voltage of 11kV and the steam turbine 15.75kV, connecting to the National Grid at 400kV. It has the largest air-cooled condenser in Europe. The chimneys are 58 m high. It employs thirty seven people.
See also
- Energy policy of the United KingdomEnergy policy of the United KingdomThe current energy policy of the United Kingdom is set out in the Energy White Paper of May 2007 and Low Carbon Transition Plan of July 2009, building on previous work including the 2003 Energy White Paper and the Energy Review Report in 2006...
- Energy use and conservation in the United KingdomEnergy use and conservation in the United KingdomEnergy use in the United Kingdom stood at 3,894.6 kilogrammes of oil equivalent per capita in 2005 compared to a world average of 1,778.0. In 2008, total energy consumed was 9.85 exajoules - around 2% of the estimated 474 EJ worldwide total...