Grain Power Station

Grain Power Station
Location of Grain Power Station in Kent
Country	England
Location	Isle of Grain Kent
Coordinates	51°26′43″N 0°42′54″E / 51.445181°N 0.715028°ECoordinates: 51°26′43″N 0°42′54″E / 51.445181°N 0.715028°E
Commission date	1979
Decommission date	2012
Operator(s)	E.ON
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Oil-fired
Tertiary fuel	Natural gas
Cogeneration?	Yes
Combined cycle?	Yes
Power generation
Units operational	5 (2 oil, 3 gas)
Make and model	Alstom (CCGT)
Nameplate capacity	1,320 MW (1,770,000 hp) (oil) and 1,275 MW (1,710,000 hp) (gas)
Website Grain Power Station
grid reference TQ886753

Grain Power Station is a CCGT power station and former oil-fired power station in Kent, England, with operational capacity of 1,275 megawatts (1,710,000 hp) owned by E.ON UK.

Grain History

Grain was built on a 250-acre (100 ha) site for the nationalised Central Electricity Generating Board. It was built by several contractors including John Laing Construction (Civils), the Cleveland Bridge Company (Steel Frame & Cladding), N. G. Bailey (Electrical), Babcock & Wilcox (Boilers) and GEC Turbine Generators Ltd (steam turbines) beginning before 1975.^[1] It opened in 1979. It is located on the Isle of Grain, where the River Medway flows into the Thames Estuary. The station has the second tallest chimney in the UK,^[2] at 244 metres (801 ft), visible from a wide area of North Kent and parts of South Essex; Drax Power Station has the tallest chimney, at 259 metres or 850 feet. Grain adjoins the site of the BP Kent oil refinery, which closed in 1982. The station burns oil to drive, via steam turbines, two 690 megawatts (930,000 hp) (gross power output – but 30 megawatts (40,000 hp) is used on-site, leaving 660 megawatts (890,000 hp) for export to the Grid) alternators. The station is capable of generating enough electricity to supply approximately 2% of Britain's peak electricity needs.

The station was originally designed to have a total capacity of 3,300 megawatts (4,400,000 hp) from five sets of boiler/turbine combinations but currently has an operational capacity of 1,320MW. The two remaining oil-fired generating units were mothballed by Powergen in 2002 and 2003, but almost immediately the company began to consider reopening the plant as electricity prices increased rapidly. It is operated by E.ON UK who also operates the nearby Kingsnorth coal-fired station.

The plant does not meet the emissions requirements of the Large Combustion Plant Directive and is required to close in 2015.^[3]

However, due to the rising costs of maintaining the plant, E.ON UK, the owners of Grain Oil power station, announced that Grain is to be mothballed and the site closed by 31 December 2012.^[4] Grain Oil power station generated no further electricity but was maintained as standby capacity for the grid.

In April 2014 the dismantling process at the site begun, being carried out by Brown and Mason Ltd; it is expected to take around 2 years to complete. On 10 May 2015, three buildings on the site were destroyed. Three of the five boiler houses were demolished by explosives on Sunday 2 August 2015. The 244m-high chimney is yet to be demolished.^[5]

Grain CHP gas plant

A new 1,275MW plant consisting of three natural gas-fired units capable of generating enough electricity to supply around one million homes has been constructed on the site at a cost of £500m. The power station is able to transfer up to 340MW of heat energy recovered from the steam condensation to run the vaporisers in the nearby Liquefied natural gas Terminal, allowing for a reduction in carbon emissions of up to 350,000 tonnes a year.^[6]

Construction work on the plant finished in May 2010 at a cost of £580 million, being built by Alstom. Work had started in May 2007. One of the gas turbines was first fired on 2 June 2010. The overall efficiency is expected to be 72%. It has three GT26 gas turbines. It supplies enough electricity for around one million homes, but also 340MW of thermal energy to the nearby natural gas Grain LNG terminal owned by National Grid. The whole scheme is designed to three Alstom KA26 Single-Shaft Combined Cycle Power Plant Power Blocks; these include a STF30C reheat steam turbine, a heat recovery steam generator and a TOPGAS hydrogen-cooled turbogenerator each.^[7]

References

1. "A – Z list of Bridges Built by Cleveland Bridge Company". Newcastle University. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
2. Flue gas stack illustration
3. "Large combustion plant directive". E.ON UK.
4. "E.ON UK announces oil-fired Grain-A power station to be mothballed and the site closed by 31 December 2012". E.ON UK.
5. "Demolition begins at Grain Power Station". Kent Online. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
6. "Grain CHP". E.ON UK.
7. TOPGAS

External links

• E.ON
• CHP plant

News items

• 2002 Mothballing plan
• 2003 Reopening
• Gas-fired station
• Gas power station proposal in December 2005
• Go-ahead for gas power station in November 2006
• Demolition begins at Grain Power Station in May 2015

Video clips

• The whole construction from start to finish, showing the three distinct KA26 CCGT units at E.ON's Talking Energy