Aberthaw Power Station refers to two decommissioned coal-fired and co-fired biomass
power stations
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many pow ...
on the coast of
South Wales
South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
, near
Barry Barry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name
* Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...
in the
Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol C ...
. They were located at
Limpert Bay, near the villages of
Gileston
Gileston ( cy, Silstwn) is a small Welsh village near West Aberthaw in ''Bro Morgannwg'' (the Vale of Glamorgan) on the coast of South Wales.
Location
It is located some 15 miles along the coast from Cardiff and lies between Barry and Llantwit ...
and
West Aberthaw
Aberthaw ( cy, Aberddawan) is an area containing the villages of East Aberthaw and West Aberthaw, on the coast of South Wales about west of Barry. It is home to Aberthaw Cement Works, Aberthaw Lime Works, and Aberthaw Power Station, a coal power ...
. The most recent power station on the site, Aberthaw B Power Station, co-fired
biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
and as of 2008 had a generating capacity of 1,560
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...
s (MW). The power station closed on 31 March 2020.
The station was the location of a
carbon capture Carbon capture may refer to:
* Carbon capture and utilization, where the captured carbon dioxide is used
* Carbon sequestration, where the captured carbon dioxide is stored
** Carbon capture and storage, referring to carbon sequestration from point ...
trial system to determine whether the technology could be scaled up from lab conditions. The system consumed 1 MW.
History
The site of the stations was a golf course before the construction of the first station. Aberthaw was constructed by the
Central Electricity Generating Board
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
It was established on 1 Januar ...
(CEGB) under the chairmanship of
Christopher Hinton. It is known as one of the original 'Hinton Heavies', a suite of new 500 MW units procured at the time. Aberthaw "A" Power Station although recorded as first generating power on 7 February 1960, officially opened on 29 October 1963, and at the time it was the most advanced in the world. Aberthaw "B" station opened in 1971. Aberthaw "A" operated until 1995.
It was subsequently demolished. Its two chimneys were the last section to be demolished, and this was done on Saturday, 25 July 1998.
The site now has three generating units, each driven by its own
Foster-Wheeler boiler. From 20062007 new steam turbines were fitted, allowing each unit to generate an extra 28-30 MW of power. Each unit rated at 520 MW.
Operations
Aberthaw burned approximately 5,0006,000 tonnes of fuel a day. The site usually burned two-thirds Welsh coal with the remainder being either foreign low-sulphur coal or biomass.
The station took its entire coal feed stock in by
rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
from the
Vale of Glamorgan Line
The Vale of Glamorgan Line ( cy, Llinell Bro Morgannwg) is a commuter railway line in Wales, running through the Vale of Glamorgan from Barry to Bridgend, via Rhoose and Llantwit Major.
Route
The Barry branch starts at Cardiff West and ru ...
, under contract to
DBS. Rail facilities included east- and west-facing connections to the main line, three reception sidings, No. 8 and No. 9 merry-go-round loop lines, two gross-weight and tare-weight weighbridges, two hopper wagon discharge hoppers, a former fly ash siding, an oil discharge siding, two sidings adjacent to the former A station, and two exchange sidings.
Aberthaw A
The A station had six 100 MW turbo-alternators giving a gross output of 600 MW. The boilers operated on pulverised coal and delivered 570 kg/s of steam at 103.4 bar and 524 °C. Station cooling was by sea water. In 1980/1 the station sent out 1,718.786 GWh, the thermal efficiency was 30.23 per cent.
Aberthaw A was one of the CEGB's twenty steam power stations with the highest
thermal efficiency
In thermodynamics, the thermal efficiency (\eta_) is a dimensionless performance measure of a device that uses thermal energy, such as an internal combustion engine, steam turbine, steam engine, boiler, furnace, refrigerator, ACs etc.
For a he ...
; in 1963–4 the thermal efficiency was 34.08 per cent, 34.67 per cent in 1964–5, and 34.27 per cent in 1965–6.
The output from the A station was as follows:
Aberthaw B
The B station had 2 × 462 MW and 1 × 475 MW turbo-alternators giving a gross output of 1,399 MW. The boilers operated on pulverised coal and delivered 1,170 kg/s of steam at 158.6 bar and 566 °C. Station cooling was by sea water. In 1978/9 the station sent out 4,083.124 GWh and in 1980/1 sent out 5,620.143 GWh.
There was a gas-turbine generating facility at Aberthaw, this was commissioned in February 1967. There were three 17.5 MW gas turbines with a total rating of 52.5 MW, they delivered 0.392 GWh in the year 1980/1.
Until its closure, the
Tower Colliery
Tower Colliery ( Welsh: Glofa'r Tŵr) was the oldest continuously working deep-coal mine in the United Kingdom, and possibly the world, until its closure in 2008. It was the last mine of its kind to remain in the South Wales Valleys. It was loca ...
in
Hirwaun supplied much of the coal for Aberthaw. Until 2017 coal came from the
Ffos-y-fran Land Reclamation Scheme
The Ffos-y-fran Land Reclamation Scheme is a major opencast coaling operation to the north-east of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. The contracted excavator/reclaiming company is Merthyr (South Wales) Ltdprev Miller Argent, which is owned by Gwent ...
in
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydf ...
. Other sources included: the
Aberpergwm
Aberpergwm is the site of a colliery in the Vale of Neath near Glynneath in south Wales.
Mine history
The site at Aberpergwm had been worked since 1811 as a series of drift mines, but full commercial working began from the 1860s when W. William ...
drift and opencast mines in the
Neath Valley
The Vale of Neath (or Neath Valley, Welsh: ''Cwm Nedd''), one of the South Wales Valleys, encompasses the upper reaches of the River Neath in southwest Wales. In addition to the River Neath, it is traversed by the Neath Canal and the A465 dual ...
; and the Cwmgwrach Colliery via the
Onllwyn Washery and the Tower Opencast mine based at the site of the original Tower Colliery. Further stocks were sourced from abroad, primarily
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, and shipped in via the ports of
Portbury
Portbury is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England within the unitary authority of North Somerset. The parish includes the hamlet of Sheepway which is situated on the moorland at the northern edge of the Gordano valley, between the Go ...
,
Avonmouth
Avonmouth is a port and outer suburb of Bristol, England, facing two rivers: the reinforced north bank of the final stage of the Avon which rises at sources in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset; and the eastern shore of the Severn Estuar ...
and
Newport Docks
Newport Docks is the collective name for a group of docks in the city of Newport, south-east Wales.
By the eighteenth century there were a number of wharves on the west shore of the River Usk; iron and coal were the principal outward traffic. Th ...
.
In response to the UK government's
renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
obligation that came into effect in April 2002, the station began firing a range of
biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
materials to replace some of the coal burned. This is due to Welsh coal being less volatile than other coal and as such producing more
sulphur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...
and
carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...
.
Flue gas desulphurization
Aberthaw B was due for closure, but in June 2005 station owners
Npower agreed to install new technology to reduce
sulphur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...
emissions by installing
flue-gas desulfurization
Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide () from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants, and from the emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting processes such as waste incineration.
Methods
...
(FGD) equipment. This was to reduce sulphur dioxide levels by 90% by 2008, when new European environmental regulations came into place. Construction of the equipment started on 21 June 2006, with a
tree planting
Tree-planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purpose. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture, and from the lower cost but slower and less re ...
ceremony attended by the
Welsh Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks,
Andrew Davies. The desulphurisation FGD project was being carried out by a consortium of
Alstom
Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...
and
Amec Foster Wheeler
Amec Foster Wheeler plc was a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In October 2017, it was acquired by Wood Group.
It was focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, M ...
, which was to have employed 500 workers on site at the peak of construction.
Nuclear proposal
In 2006, it was reported that consultants for the
Department of Trade and Industry had identified the site as a suitable location for a
nuclear power station
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces elec ...
, based on the existing infrastructure and logistics. The department commented "We are conducting an energy review. The review is to see whether there should be a nuclear element to Britain's energy plan, and it would be a bit odd to identify sites for nuclear power stations at this time."
Court case
On 26 March 2015, the BBC reported that the UK government was being taken to court by the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
over excess emissions of
nitrogen oxides Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds:
Charge-neutral
*Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide
*Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide
*Nitrogen trioxide (), or ni ...
from Aberthaw power station. This issue was raised in the
National Assembly for Wales
The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English language, English and () in Welsh language, Welsh, is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes ...
on 10 November 2015 by
Bethan Jenkins AM.
Closure
The station’s closure was first announced on 1 August 2019.
The station officially closed on 31 March 2020,
the same date of closure as
Fiddlers Ferry Power Station in
Widnes
Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464.
Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...
, Cheshire.
Re-development
The site of Aberthaw Power Station has been suggested as a site for tidal energy generation with the
Cardiff Capital Region
The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR; cy, Prifddinas Ranbarth Caerdydd) is a City region (Wales), city region in Wales, centred on the capital city of Wales, Cardiff, in the southeast of the country. It is a partnership between the ten Local authori ...
confirming its intention to buy the site. It was confirmed on 3 March 2022 that the Capital Region had bought the site from RWE for £8 million.
See also
*
Aberthaw Cement Works
Aberthaw Cement Works are cement works in the Vale of Glamorgan near the village of East Aberthaw in Wales.
History
The Blue Lias limestone of Aberthaw was a source of hydraulic lime from early times, and it was made famous when it was selected ...
*
Aberthaw lime works
Aberthaw Lime Works is a derelict structure, located on the South Wales coast, between Fontygary Bay and Aberthaw Power Station. The structure is a Grade II Listed Building. The structure is considered a listed building because it is a well pres ...
*
*
npower UK
Npower Limited is a British supplier of gas and electricity to businesses. It has been a subsidiary of E.ON UK since January 2019. The company was formerly known as Innogy plc and was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of ...
References
External links
*
* 1995 aerial photograph
{{RWE
Buildings and structures in the Vale of Glamorgan
RWE
Coal-fired power stations in Wales
Demolished power stations in the United Kingdom
St Athan